Asser International Sports Law Blog - Antoine-DuvalOur International Sports Law Diary <br/>The <a href="http://www.sportslaw.nl" target="_blank">Asser International Sports Law Centre</a> is part of the <a href="https://www.asser.nl/" target="_blank"><img src="/sportslaw/blog/media/logo_asser_horizontal.jpg" style="vertical-align: bottom; margin-left: 7px;width: 140px" alt="T.M.C. Asser Instituut" /></a>http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specificationBlogEngine.NET 2.9.1.0en-UShttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/opml.axdhttp://www.dotnetblogengine.net/syndication.axdAsser International Sports Law CentreAsser International Sports Law Blog0.0000000.000000League of Legends European Championships - Challenging the Boundaries of Sport in EU Law - By Thomas Terraz<p align="justify"><b><u>Editor’s
note:</u></b> Thomas Terraz is a third year LL.B.
candidate at the International and European Law programme at The Hague
University of Applied Sciences with a specialisation in European Law. Currently
he is pursuing an internship at the T.M.C. Asser Institute with a focus on
International and European Sports Law. <br></p><p align="justify"><br></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify">1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <b><u>Introduction</u></b><b><u></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The
surge of e-sports has stimulated a lively discussion on the essential
characteristics of sport and whether e-sports, in general, can be considered a
sport. However, one should not overlook the fact that e-sports encompass a
broad range of video games that fundamentally differ from one another. Thus, as
one commentator recently underlined, “the position of video games and the
e-sport competitions based on them should be analysed on a case-by-case basis.”<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>
In this spirit, this blog aims to provide a concise analysis of one of these
e-sports, League of Legends (LoL), and one of its main competitions, the League
of Legends European Championship (LEC), to assess whether it could be
considered a sport in the sense of EU law. The LEC offers a fascinating
opportunity to examine this issue especially since the previous European League
of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS) was rebranded and restructured this
year into the LEC. <br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify">2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<b><u>What is League of Legends and the
LEC?</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">At
the time of writing, LoL released nearly a decade ago by Riot Games (a game
developer based in the USA) and rapidly became one of the most played video
games in the world due in part to its free to play business model. This means that
anyone can download and play LoL on their computer without ever having to pay
anything. In-game microtransactions exist but do not provide any competitive
advantage. The game itself involves two teams of five players who each control
a ‘champion’, which are characters in the game that each possess unique
abilities. A team only wins when it has destroyed the enemy base (‘nexus’). The
game is not only a popular video game, but it is a popular e-sport. The most
recent world championships finals attracted <a href="https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2018/12/2018-events-by-the-numbers/">99.6
million unique viewers</a>. While these
numbers are greatly due to its popularity in China and South Korea, there is
also a sizeable European viewership of LoL. For example, the LEC regular season
matches have reached a record-breaking <a href="https://eu.lolesports.com/en/articles/2019-lec-spring-split-playoffs-viewership-update">355,000
concurrent viewers</a> in its 2019 spring competition. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The
LEC is LoL’s highest level of European competition and is owned and organised
by Riot Games who establishes and enforces the <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cdn.eu.lolesports.com/LEC+Rulebook+2019+(Updated+13.03.2019).pdf">rules</a>
which apply to the teams participating in the LEC. Consequently, Riot Games is
truly at the apex of professional LoL in Europe by setting both the in-game
parameters (the rules of the game) and the regulations that govern its
competitive play. As explained earlier, Riot Games restructured and rebranded
its previous European competition, EU LCS, into the LEC. While previously the
EU LCS was characterised by a pyramid structure with a promotion and relegation
system familiar to the European sports world, the LEC introduced a franchise
model to follow its sibling competition in North America, the League
Championship Series (LCS). The LEC itself is a limited liability company
registered in the Republic of Ireland as League of Legends European
Championship Limited.<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a>
The LEC buy-in fee for teams already in the EU LCS was <a href="http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/22933422/european-league-championship-series-changes-include-salary-increase-franchising-rev-share">reportedly</a>
set at 8 million euros and 10.5 million euros for those outside the EU LCS.
Additionally, big brands such as KIA, Shell, Foot Locker and Red Bull <a href="https://esportsobserver.com/red-bull-sponsor-lec/">sponsor</a>
the LEC and are featured during the broadcast. Besides being produced and
diffused weekly by the official Riot Games English broadcast team in a
professional studio in Berlin on Twitch (an online video game livestreaming
service) and YouTube, the LEC partners with other official <a href="https://eu.lolesports.com/en/articles/lec-broadcast-partners-for-the-2019-season">broadcasters</a>
who provide coverage of the matches in other languages (French, Spanish,
Polish, German, Italian). Nevertheless, before examining the LEC’s position under
EU law, a review of the broader arguments on the fundamental traits of sport will
contextualise the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) interpretation
of the concept of sport.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify">3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <b><u>Is
LoL played in the LEC a sport competition?</u></b><b><u></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The
academic discourse on the definition of sport has provided a plethora of
elements and conditions for an aspiring sport to meet in order to be considered
a ‘real’ sport. Needless to say, this blog will not be able to address all of
them. However, the characteristics identified by Suits and elaborated by Jenny
et al. and Abanazir are a good starting point for this brief review.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a>
Suits explains that sports are in essence games that require skill, where the
skill requires physicality, that the game have a wide following, and that this
following have a certain level of stability. Abanazir delved into the concept
of stability in the e-sports context by explaining institutionalisation’s
central role in achieving permanence.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">On
the first requirement, there is very little room to argue that professional LoL
does not require a great amount of skill. Suits explains that games of skill
provide ‘unnecessary obstacles’ (in relation to daily life) “to realize
capacities not otherwise realizable” that do not rely on pure chance.<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title="">[4]</a>
Playing LoL is not in any way a necessary part of human life, yet many players
practicing LoL play to refine and improve their mechanical skill (the physical
element of the game, e.g. muscle memory and reflexes). Chance sometimes plays a
role in LoL, but it is rarely a decisive factor in determining the outcome of a
competitive match. Generally, Riot Games has taken steps over the years to
limit the elements of pure luck in its game. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The
role of physical motor skills in e-sports has been explained in detail by van
Hilvoorde and Pot, and this blog will not dive into the arguments on whether
actions taken in a video game can be considered taking place in the ‘real’
world.<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">[5]</a>
Assuming that it does, the skill required in LoL is intrinsically connected to
its physicality. LoL is played on a computer with a mouse and a keyboard. High
level play requires precise movement of the arm, wrist and/or hand to most
effectively control one’s character with the mouse. Additionally, the clicks
and inputs registered by one’s fingers on the mouse and keyboard must be timed
precisely and with enough practice these movements become muscle memory. The
classic example of a game that does not require this sort of physicality is
chess because the manner in which one moves a chess piece from a to b does not
affect the result of the game. On the other hand, LoL demands precise and timed
movements of the player’s arms, wrists, and/or fingers to be played optimally.
One can be a LoL strategic genius but without a sufficient level of mechanical
skill, it is impossible to become a professional LoL player. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Next,
a large following is probably the easiest criteria for LoL and the LEC to
fulfil. Between the large viewership that watch the LoL events online and the
thousands of spectators that come to watch the championships live, there is
very little doubt that LoL and the LEC have a wide following at the moment.
However, this point leads into the next element which arguably may be the
hardest criteria for it to satisfy in the long term: stability.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Video
games and consequently, e-sports, generally reach a point where they have
achieved their max popularity and eventually begin to lose players and viewers.
Often times, this is the result of newly released video games pushing older and
‘outdated’ games out of the spotlight. LoL has remained at the forefront of
e-sports for nearly a decade and there is little suggestion that this will
change in the near future. Part of this is Riot Games’ continued support of LoL
by regularly updating the game. Updates are released nearly every other week
and can range from graphical improvements, balancing the game to ensure the
viability of new strategies, the introduction of new champions (currently 143
champions) and tweaks that improve the way the game runs on the computer. Abanazir
describes that changes such as these “present a double-edged sword” because
while they keep the game fresh for players, they can result in drastic changes
to the best strategies (meta) to win the game.<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title="">[6]</a>
Thus, professional teams and players must continually adapt their play to
conform to the meta. Nevertheless, updates have never fundamentally changed the
goal and overall ‘rules’ of the game. Professional LoL is always two teams of
five players, each controlling one champion, aiming to destroy the enemy nexus.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">From
an outsider’s point of view, it may seem that the constant flux of the meta
would truly damage any of LoL’s claim to stability. However, in this context,
it is imperative to highlight the institutionalisation of the LEC.
Institutionalisation describes the appearance of “standardisation of rules, the
formalisation of learning of the games, the development of expertise and
finally the emergence of coaches, trainers, officials and governing bodies.”<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title="">[7]</a>
The very fact that the meta often changes have pushed professional teams to
hire analysts that review the team’s play and are constantly searching for new
and creative ways to play LoL. Additionally, all professional teams have at
least one coach who not only define the team’s strategy before each game, but
also ensure that players observe strict practice schedules. During LEC matches,
referees (Riot Games employees) are always present in order to ensure that the
LEC rules are observed, which greatly lends to the idea of a ‘standardisation’
of the rules.<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a> In
fact, Riot Games directly state that the creation of the LEC Rulebook is to
help “unify and standardize the rules used in competitive play.”<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title="">[9]</a>
From this outline, there are many indications that the LEC and LoL have many of
the characteristics of a sport and currently have achieved a certain amount of
stability and institutionalisation. The true test will be whether these
structures continue to last as they have been developed and implemented over
the past eight years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify">4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <b><u>A
Sport under EU Law?</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Recently,
the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=196124&amp;doclang=EN">ruled</a>
on whether the English Bridge Union could benefit from a sports exemption under
the <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:347:0001:0118:en:PDF">VAT
Directive</a> and in doing so examined the
concept of sport under that Directive.<a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title="">[10]</a>
Furthermore, in this case, Advocate General (AG) Szpunar provided an
enlightening <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=191818&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=lst&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=3425858">opinion</a>
to the Court examining the concept of sport in the context of the VAT
exemption.<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title="">[11]</a>
Both provide a good opportunity to infer how the Court would perhaps go about
determining whether the LEC is a sport competition under EU law. This being
said, the sport exception in the current VAT Directive would not apply to the
LEC since Article 132 (1) (m) applies only to services provided by non-profit
organisations. Nonetheless, should League of Legends European Championship
Limited eventually restructure into a non-profit, it would not be far-fetched
to imagine a situation in which it would seek to have VAT reimbursed from
authorities under a sports exception in the future. After all, Riot Games has
repeatedly stated that it does not make a profit on its e-sport activities.<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title="">[12]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The
AG’s opinion began by explaining that the concept of sport in the exemption
should be “interpreted in a narrow manner, while bearing in mind the purpose
and objective of the exemption.”<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title="">[13]</a>
From this it is clear that the analysis of the concept of sport differs
depending on the applicable provision, which could mean that the LEC could be
considered a sport competition under one provision and a purely economic
activity in another context. The AG goes on to identifying elements which
preclude an activity from being considered a sport and states that “where a
physical element is not necessary, sport is defined by competition and the fact
that equipment is provided by not just one supplier -&nbsp; which excludes activities without a broad
basis in civil society, such as commercial products in the market place,
designed by firms for pure consumption (for instance video games).”<a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title="">[14]</a>
If this interpretation of the concept of sport had been endorsed by the CJEU,
it would have constituted a tremendous obstacle for the LEC. Indeed, if the
‘equipment’ also encompasses the game itself, it is impossible to argue that
Riot Games does not hold a monopoly over the supply of LoL. Moreover, Riot
Games has made and continues to support LoL in order to make money. In
analysing this opinion, Abanazir explains the core issue well: “e-sport
competitions based on video games created for purely consumption purposes and
organised by persons aimed to profit from these activities may find themselves
out of the scope as they are perceived to be devoid of social function.”<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title="">[15]</a>
Indeed, it can seem difficult for the LEC and LoL to argue that it has a deeper
‘social function’ but perhaps this requirement might not be completely
insurmountable. An argument could be made that the e-sports aspect of LoL is
not only a commercial product made for pure consumption especially because LoL
is a free to play game, and Riot Games does not seem to be making any profit in
its e-sport related activities. Riot Games and the LEC have also taken steps to
enhance the social function of LoL by <a href="https://eu.lolesports.com/en/articles/european-regional-leagues-and-the-european-cup">investing
in regional leagues</a> to develop local talent. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In
its ruling on the Bridge case, the CJEU sidelined the AG’s approach and decided
to focus on a physicality requirement. The Court, in examining the specific VAT
provision, found that sport must be “characterised by a not negligible physical
element,” and the fact that an activity has elements of competition,
professionality and organisation were not deemed sufficient to argue that the
activity is a sport for the VAT exemption.<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title="">[16]</a>
Physicality was the central criteria in the CJEU’s interpretation of the
concept of sport, but in doing so, it did not give any further clarity as to
the threshold of physicality required for an activity to benefit from the VAT
sport exemption. It has already been contended above that LoL does have a clear
physical element which is intrinsically connected to the game’s skill, yet the question
remains whether the physicality would be considered more than negligible by the
CJEU. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In
summary, if LoL and the LEC were to be examined under the VAT Directive sport
exemption, it would be confronted with several challenges. The approach endorsed
in the AG’s opinion would have been the most problematic since LoL is mainly a
commercial product designed to attract consumers and ultimately profit a
private company. However, the CJEU chose to focus its interpretation of the
concept of sport on a physicality criterion. This decision may give the LEC a
wide enough window to argue that the fine motor skills involved in LoL are
enough to fulfil this condition. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify">5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <b><u>Conclusion</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In
its current form, the LEC would not be able to benefit from the sport exemption
in the VAT Directive, but this is just one provision of EU law, and there could
be other opportunities where it could attempt to claim to be a sport. In the
meantime, this gives an opportunity to Riot Games to continue to develop and
emphasise the social function of its e-sports competitions, which might entail
building a not-for-profit entity to run the competition and to strengthen the redistribution
of economic gains to the grassroots. In any case, LoL and the LEC share many
characteristics with established sports, but it remains to be seen if this will
be enough to boost its recognition as a ‘real’ sport in law and society.</p>
<p align="justify"></p><hr width="33%" size="1" align="justify">
<p id="ftn1" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> Cem
Abanazir, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-018-0139-6">‘E-sport
and the EU: the view from the English Bridge Union’</a>
(2019) International Sports Law Journal 102.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn2" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> ‘<a href="https://eu.lolesports.com/en/about/lec-rules">LEC
Rules’</a> (<i>LoLEsports</i>).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn3" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title="">[3]</a> William
Morgan, <a href="https://uk.humankinetics.com/products/ethics-in-sport-3rd-edition"><i>Ethics in Sport</i></a>
(3rd edn, Human Kinetics 2018) ch 1: Elements of Sport by Bernard Suits; Seth
Jenny et al., <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00336297.2016.1144517">‘Virtual(ly)
Athletes: Where eSports fit within the definition of “Sport”’</a>(2016)
Quest 1; Cem
Abanazir, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17511321.2018.1453538">‘Institutionalisation
in E-Sports’</a> (2019) Sport, Ethics and Philosophy
117.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn4" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title="">[4]</a> Morgan (n 3) ch 1.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn5" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title="">[5]</a> Ivo
van Hilvoorde and Niek Pot, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17511321.2016.1159246">‘Embodiment
and fundamental motor skills in eSports’</a>
(2016) Sports, Ethics and Philosophy 14.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn6" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title="">[6]</a> Abanazir
(n 3).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn7" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title="">[7]</a> Jenny et al. (n 3); Abanazir (n 3).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn8" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title="">[8]</a> See <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/cdn.eu.lolesports.com/LEC+Rulebook+2019+(Updated+13.03.2019).pdf">LEC Rulebook</a> Art. 8.15.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn9" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title="">[9]</a> LEC Rules (n 2).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn10" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title="">[10]</a> Case
C-90/16 <i>The English Bridge Union Limited
v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue &amp; Customs</i> ECLI:EU:C:2017:814.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn11" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title="">[11]</a> Case
C-90/16 <i>The English Bridge Union Limited
v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue &amp; Customs</i> ECLI:EU:C:2017:814,
Opinion of AG Szpunar.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn12" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title="">[12]</a> Steven
Asarch, ‘“<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/league-legends-feargorm-esports-na-lcs-finals-eu-1093389">League
of Legends” cuts esports budget, can Riot Games bounce back</a>?’
(<i>Newsweek</i>, 28 August 2018); Derrick
Asiedu head of Global Events at Riot Games confirmed this in a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/9aqbes/riot_is_cutting_back_budget_on_esports/e4y4som/">Reddit
post</a>: “We’re a long way from breaking
even (revenue minus cost equalling 0)”.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn13" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title="">[13]</a> <i>English Bridge Union </i>Opinion (n 11) para 21.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn14" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title="">[14]</a> <a name="_Hlk8740751"><i>English Bridge Union </i>Opinion (n 11) </a>para 38.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn15" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title="">[15]</a> Abanazir (n 1).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn16" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title="">[16]</a> <i>English Bridge Union</i> (n 10) para 19, 25.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/league-of-legends-european-championships-challenging-the-boundaries-of-sport-in-eu-law-by-thomas-terraz
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/league-of-legends-european-championships-challenging-the-boundaries-of-sport-in-eu-law-by-thomas-terraz#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=71edf1b9-d94d-4753-9188-3b86b9de404dMon, 20 May 2019 13:05:00 +0200BlogAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=71edf1b9-d94d-4753-9188-3b86b9de404d0http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=71edf1b9-d94d-4753-9188-3b86b9de404dhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/league-of-legends-european-championships-challenging-the-boundaries-of-sport-in-eu-law-by-thomas-terraz#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=71edf1b9-d94d-4753-9188-3b86b9de404dWill the World Cup 2022 Expansion Mark the Beginning of the End of FIFA’s Human Rights Journey? - By Daniela Heerdt<p align="justify"><b>Editor's note</b>: Daniela Heerdt is a PhD
candidate at Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands. Her PhD research deals with
the establishment of responsibility and accountability for adverse human rights
impacts of mega-sporting events, with a focus on FIFA World Cups and Olympic
Games. <br></p><p align="justify"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">About three years ago, the Fédération Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA) adopted a new version of its <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/the-fifa-statutes-2018.pdf?cloudid=whhncbdzio03cuhmwfxa">Statutes</a>,
including a statutory commitment to respect internationally recognized human
rights. Since then, FIFA undertook a human rights journey that has been praised
by various stakeholders in the sports and human rights field. In early June, the
FIFA Congress is scheduled to take a decision that could potentially undo all
positive efforts taken thus far.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/fifa-council-unanimously-decides-on-expansion-of-the-fifa-world-cuptm--2863100">FIFA</a> already decided in January 2017 to increase the
number of teams participating in the 2026 World Cup from 32 to 48. Shortly
after, discussions began on the possibility to also expand the number of teams for
the 2022 World Cup hosted in Qatar. Subsequently, FIFA conducted a <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/idhwq1ychz15wifipcna.pdf">feasibility
study</a>, which revealed that the expansion would be feasible but require a
number of matches to be hosted in neighbouring countries, explicitly mentioning
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One
does not have to be a human rights expert to be highly alarmed by this list of
potential co-hosting countries. Nevertheless, the FIFA Council approved of the
possibility to expand in March 2019, paving the way for the FIFA Congress to
take a decision on the matter. Obviously, the advancement of the expansion
decision raises serious doubts over the sincerity of FIFA’s reforms and human
rights commitments. </p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><u>The Human Rights Climate in Potential Co-hosts</u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The list of human rights issues commonly linked to the potential
co-hosts is long.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a>
All of them uphold severe restrictions on the freedom of expression and
regularly silence activists. Women face discrimination under the law of a
number of these countries, and the rights of migrant workers are not adequately
protected, leading to abusive situations and forced labour.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>
Arbitrary arrests and unfair trials and sentencing are widespread in <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE2099102019ENGLISH.pdf">Oman</a>.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title="">[iii]</a>
<a href="https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/bahrain">Bahrain</a> has a
habit of detaining, torturing and deporting human rights defenders and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/kuwait">Kuwait</a> refuses to
recognize the 100,000 Bidun living in the country as Kuwaiti citizens, leaving
them stateless. The latest add-on to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/saudi-arabia">Saudi Arabia’s appalling
human rights track record</a> is the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24510&amp;LangID=E">mass
execution of 37 individuals</a>, which proceeded against vociferous criticism
from other states and human rights organizations about the lack of due process
and allegations of torture having been used to obtain confessions of those
convicted and executed. Furthermore, even the highest football official cannot
have missed the allegations on Saudi officials being involved in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/24/un-forensics-team-to-visit-turkey-in-inquiry-into-khashoggi-death">murder
of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi</a> in the Saudi consulate in Turkey in
October 2018. Finally, the active involvement of and alleged attacks on
civilians launched by Saudi Arabia and the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa/united-arab-emirates">UAE</a> in
the Yemen war can also not be ignored.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In addition to these structural human rights issues spread in the
region, a number of these countries have been involved in very recent
football-related human rights cases. In January 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/05/british-man-detained-in-uae-after-wearing-qatar-football-t-shirt-to-match">a
British football fan, Ali Ahmad, has been detained</a> for three weeks and
suffered torture by UAE security officials for wearing a Qatari football jersey
to an Asian Cup match between Qatar and Iraq. In February 2019, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/i-was-crying-inside-melbourne-soccer-player-hakeem-al-araibi-on-the-bungle-that-landed-him-in-a-thai-jail-20190409-p51cck.html">Hakeem
al-Araibi</a>, a football player from Bahrain, now living as refugee in
Australia, has been released from Thai prison after his arrest in November
2018. The Thai authorities acted upon an arrest warrant issued by Bahrain, where
Hakeem had been convicted <i>in absentia</i>
to 10 years in prison for an incident dating back to November 2012. The
official allegations were vandalism of a police station, but there is clear
evidence that discharges Hakeem of these allegations. Most likely, he became a
target of Bahraini government and football officials that identified and
persecuted Bahraini football players that were involved in anti-government
protests during the Arab Spring in 2012. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><u>The Mismatch with FIFA’s Standing Human Rights Commitments</u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">This brief overview presents just a fraction of the extremely
negative human rights track record of the countries that FIFA is considering as
potential co-hosts for the 2022 World Cup. In case one of these countries will indeed
host a World Cup match, FIFA risks to throw away all efforts that it carefully
put into building up its human rights profile in the past three years. After
the inclusion of human rights into its Statutes, FIFA created a <a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2017/m=3/news=independent-advisory-board-of-human-rights-experts-to-meet-on-13-march-2875485.html">Human
Rights Advisory Board</a> in March 2017, adopted a <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/89/33/12/fifashumanrightspolicy_neutral.pdf">human
rights policy</a> in May 2017, and launched a <a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2018/m=5/news=fifa-launches-complaints-mechanism-for-human-rights-defenders-and-journalists.html">complaint
mechanism</a> for human rights defenders and media representatives in the
run-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Most importantly, in October 2017 FIFA integrated human rights
requirements in its <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/02/91/60/99/biddingregulationsandregistration_neutral.pdf">bidding
requirements for the World Cup</a> following
John Ruggie’s recommendation to “set explicit human rights
requirements of Local Organising Committees in bidding documents for
tournaments and provide guidance on them”.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title="">[iv]</a>
The revised bidding requirements expect bidders to conduct all bidding and
hosting activities in line with internationally recognized human rights.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title="">[v]</a>
Furthermore, bidders are required to submit a public commitment to respect
human rights and a human rights strategy, together with a report on stakeholder
engagement in developing the policy.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title="">[vi]</a>
The new requirements applied for the first time to the
bidding process for the 2026 World Cup and while the 2022 World
Cup had been awarded before, the new standard forms an integral part of FIFA’s
human rights system by now and therefore should be considered in the recent
expansion plans. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Interestingly, the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/idhwq1ychz15wifipcna.pdf">feasibility
study</a> on the expansion of the 2022 World Cup mentions human rights at
several points: in the context of requirements regarding stadiums (p. 32 &amp;
46), as part of requirements for additional infrastructure and sites (p. 46),
and as one of the necessary government guarantees to be submitted to FIFA
(p.68). Receiving such guarantees from the respective government might not pose
a problem. Instead, the real issue at stake is whether FIFA truly cares about
its human rights commitments when considering if these guarantees turn out to
be nothing but empty words on a piece of paper? FIFA risks failing its
commitments by letting any of the proposed countries co-host the World Cup
without having done a proper human rights risk assessment. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Despite this risk, the expansion seems to be more likely to happen
than not. FIFA President Gianni Infantino appears to be convinced that the
expansion can contribute to solving the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40173757">diplomatic crisis</a>
that is ongoing in the region and <a href="http://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-fifa/story/3800970/fifa-to-make-decision-on-expanding-2022-world-cup-in-june">stated
on record</a> that a preliminary survey showed that 90% of the member
associations are in favour of the expansion. Indeed, the decision lies in their
hands. They make up the members of the FIFA Congress, FIFA’s supreme body for
decision-making, and each member association has one vote. While a number of
associations and confederations already <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/africa/47571763">publicly announced their
support</a> of the expansion, there is still hope that other member
associations or confederations remind FIFA of its human rights responsibilities
and commitments by voting against it. </p>
<hr width="33%" size="1" align="left">
<p id="edn1">
</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> For an overview of human rights issues linked to these countries,
see Human Rights Watch (2019), “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018">World Report 2018</a>”.&nbsp;
</p>
<p></p>
<p id="edn2">
</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> See for example
Human Rights Committee CCPR/C/BHR/CO/1 (2018), “<a href="https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/BHR/CO/1&amp;Lang=En">Concluding observations on the
initial report of Bahrain</a>”.
</p>
<p></p>
<p id="edn3">
</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title="">[iii]</a> Human Rights Council A/HRC/29/25/Add.1 (2015), “<a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G15/083/10/PDF/G1508310.pdf?OpenElement">Report of the
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of
association, Maina Kiai – Mission to Oman</a>”, para 20 ff.
</p>
<p></p>
<p id="edn4">
</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title="">[iv]</a> John G. Ruggie (2017), “’<a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/mrcbg/programs/cri/files/Ruggie_humanrightsFIFA_reportApril2016.pdf">For the Game. For the World’ FIFA &amp;
Human Rights</a>”, p. 32.</p>
<p></p>
<p id="edn5">
</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title="">[v]</a> FIFA (2017), “<a href="http://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/02/91/60/99/biddingregulationsandregistration_neutral.pdf">FIFA REGULATIONS for the selection of the venue for
the final competition of the 2026 FIFA World Cup™”,</a> Regulation 8.1 (ii).</p>
<p></p>
<p id="edn6">
</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title="">[vi]</a> Ibid., Regulation 8.2.<br></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/will-the-world-cup-2022-expansion-mark-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-fifa-s-human-rights-journey-by-daniela-heerdt
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/will-the-world-cup-2022-expansion-mark-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-fifa-s-human-rights-journey-by-daniela-heerdt#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=c24ea369-23dd-4adc-8dc1-59ffee508f4fFri, 17 May 2019 14:05:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law CommentariesAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=c24ea369-23dd-4adc-8dc1-59ffee508f4f0http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=c24ea369-23dd-4adc-8dc1-59ffee508f4fhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/will-the-world-cup-2022-expansion-mark-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-fifa-s-human-rights-journey-by-daniela-heerdt#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=c24ea369-23dd-4adc-8dc1-59ffee508f4fHow Data Protection Crystallises Key Legal Challenges in Anti-Doping - By Marjolaine Viret<p><b>Editor's Note</b>: Marjolaine is a researcher and attorney admitted to the Geneva bar (Switzerland) who specialises in sports and life sciences. Her interests focus on interdisciplinary approaches as a way of designing effective solutions in the field of anti-doping and other science-based domains. Her book “<a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789462650831">Evidence in Anti-Doping at the Intersection of Science &amp; Law</a>” was published through T.M.C Asser Press / Springer in late 2015. She participates as a co-author on a project hosted by the University of Neuchâtel to produce the first article-by-article legal commentary of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code. In her practice, she regularly advises international federations and other sports organisations on doping and other regulatory matters, in particular on aspects of scientific evidence, privacy or research regulation. She also has experience assisting clients in arbitration proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport or other sport tribunals. <br></p><p><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Since the spectre of the EU General Data
Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) has loomed over the sports sector,<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>
a new wind seems to be blowing on anti-doping, with a palpable growing interest
for stakes involved in data processing. Nothing that would quite qualify as a
wind of change yet, but a gentle breeze of awareness at the very least. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Though the GDPR does mention the fight
against doping in sport as a potential matter of public health in its recitals,<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a>
EU authorities have not gone so far as to create a standalone ground on which
anti-doping organisations could rely to legitimise their data processing.
Whether or not anti-doping organisations have a basis to process personal data –
and specifically sensitive data – as part of their anti-doping activities, thus
remains dependent on the peculiarities of each national law. Even anti-doping
organisations that are incorporated outside the EU are affected to the extent
they process data about athletes in the EU.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a>
This includes international sports federations, many of which are organised as private
associations under Swiss law. Moreover, the <a href="https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19920153/index.html">Swiss
Data Protection Act</a> (‘DPA’) is <a href="https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/fr/home/protection-des-donnees/dokumentation/revisions-de-la-loi-federale-sur-la-protection-des-donnees--lpd-.html">currently
under review</a>, and the revised legal
framework should largely mirror the GDPR, subject to a few Swiss peculiarities.
All anti-doping organisations undertake at a minimum to abide by the WADA <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/data-protection/international-standard-for-the-protection-of-privacy-and-personal">International
Standard for Privacy and the Protection of Personal Information</a> (‘ISPPPI’),
which has been adapted with effect to 1 June 2018 and enshrines requirements
similar to those of the GDPR. However, the ISPPPI stops short of actually
referring to the GDPR and leaves discretion for anti-doping organisations to
adapt to other legislative environments. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The purpose of this blog is not to offer a
detailed analysis of the requirements that anti-doping organisations must abide
by under data protection laws, but to highlight how issues around data
processing have come to crystallise key challenges that anti-doping
organisations face globally. Some of these challenges have been on the table since
the adoption of the first edition of the World Anti-Doping Code (‘WADC’) but
are now exposed in the unforgiving light of data protection requirements. </p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b><u>Who
is who and who does what?</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">It is hardly a scoop for those familiar
with the World Anti-Doping Program to state that its structures are complex, relying
on an intricate network of private entities as well as public (or quasi-public)
agencies, each subject to their own applicable laws. The World Anti-Doping
Program has always struggled with reconciling its objectives of global harmonisation
with the sovereignty and diversity of national laws. National Anti-Doping
Organisations (‘NADO’s) operate at the national level; they are in charge of
doping issues across all sports in one country and are endowed with more or
less extensive enforcement powers depending on their country’s regulatory
approach to the sport sector. By contrast, international federations claim exclusive
governance over one sport worldwide, uniformly and without regard to national
borders but have to do so with the instruments available to private entities
based on contractual or similar tools of private autonomy. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Over time, the WADC has been repeatedly updated
to strike a balance between the two (national <i>versus</i> international) spheres and avoid positive or negative
conflicts of competence. Provisions seek to clarify attributions in areas where
international- and national-level competences collide, such as roles in
Therapeutic Use Exemption (‘TUE’) management, testing authority, or results
management responsibilities.<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title="">[4]</a>
Even as it is, there is no safeguard to prevent disputes from arising about the
proper authority to investigate and initiate proceedings for doping.<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">[5]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Data processing activities are not exempted
from the difficulties that accompany the complexity of anti-doping. If anything,
these difficulties are rather exacerbated by data protection laws. In
particular, the GDPR seeks to create a framework within which data subjects can
easily recognise when data is being processed about them, by whom and to what
aim(s), and whom to turn to in order to exercise their rights. This forces
anti-doping organisations to be precise and unambiguous about their respective
roles and attributions among themselves and chiefly towards the data subjects,
the athletes subject to doping control.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The GDPR draws a distinction between two
major categories of entities that process personal data: an entity can be
characterised either as a data ‘controller’, or as a data ‘processor’. A
controller is defined as an entity which “<i>alone
or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of
personal data</i>”. A processor is an entity “<i>which processes personal data on behalf of</i>” a controller.<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title="">[6]</a>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The distinction may seem rather
straightforward at first sight: the controller has a personal or commercial interest
in the data processing and decides which data to collect, from whom, and
through what means. At the other end of the spectrum, a ‘typical’ processor
receives documented instructions from a controller and merely implements these
instructions with no autonomy of decision or an autonomy limited to technical issues
and logistics. However, interrelationships are often much more subtle in
reality with considerable room for borderline situations: multiple controllers may
need to agree on their (joint) controllership of the data while operating alongside
entities that may act in part as processors, in part as controllers of their
own right for different aspects of the data processing.<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title="">[7]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In anti-doping, more than half a dozen
entities may be involved in a routine doping control activity, between test planning
and the outcome of a disciplinary process. All of these will either collect or
gain access to athlete data, including sensitive data, as illustrated by the
following: an international federation decides to conduct blood testing on an
athlete from its registered testing pool but delegates sample collection to the
NADO of the country in which the athlete is currently residing. To do so, the
NADO has access to the athlete’s whereabouts filings through the ADAMS database,
managed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (‘WADA’). The NADO itself carries out
sample collection through a private service provider with its dedicated blood
control officers and decides to use the opportunity to order, in addition, the
collection of urine samples from the athlete. Upon sampling, the athlete is
asked to fill in the doping control form in front of the doping control
personnel, which includes disclosing several ongoing medication courses in the
dedicated box. Samples are then transported, in a de-identified (‘coded’) form,
by private courier from the country of collection to the international
federation’s usual WADA-accredited laboratory in a different country. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Assuming the laboratory reports an adverse
analytical finding in the blood sample, the international federation requests a
full documentation package from the laboratory and verifies whether a Therapeutic
Use Exemption on the record could be related to the adverse analytical finding.
Upon notification of the results and public announcement of the immediate
provisional suspension, the athlete requests the analysis of the B sample,
thereby <i>de facto</i> lifting the code on
the A sample where the laboratory is concerned. The athlete submits a series of
explanations regarding the possible causes for the adverse analytical finding, including
a report from his treating physician regarding a medical condition that might
account for the findings. The international federation may send the laboratory
documentation package and athlete explanations to external experts for
additional input and then hands over the file to its external anti-doping
tribunal members. Most data will at some point have to pass through the ADAMS
database and be stored within that database for up to ten years. However, it may
also be communicated by other (electronic or physical) means among anti-doping
organisations and their service providers and experts. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Once the disciplinary decision is issued, its
main elements are publicly disclosed by the international federation on its
website, and the decision shared with WADA and any NADO having jurisdiction
over the athlete. The NADO further decides to send the negative urine sample
for long-term storage and possible reanalysis to the WADA-accredited laboratory
that provides its storage facilities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The above description represents an imaginary
but ultimately rather standard situation for anti-doping organisations. It does
not seem too far-fetched to identify that the international federation at the
very least acts as a controller of the athlete data processed. However, a NADO
who receives instructions to collect samples and also decides to collect
additional data (and additional biological materials) on its own and for its
own purposes, potentially acts as both a processor and controller depending on
the data at stake. A number of processors and sub-processors are involved in
the process as service providers, while the qualification of external experts
may have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. WADA offers the ADAMS database
as an IT infrastructure for data storage and sharing for the international federation
and NADO but also uses the data to fulfil its own obligations and purposes
under the WADC, such as exercising its appeal rights or verifying compliance of
the anti-doping organisations with their duties. Arguably, at the very least
there will be three controllers of data (international federation, NADO, and
WADA) in addition to multiple processors and sub-processors. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Characterising the role of each entity as a
‘controller’ or as a ‘processor’ is far from being of academic interest only. The
two types of entities have distinct responsibilities and requirements for
lawful processing. Appropriate contractual arrangements need to be set up among
the entities involved, and data subjects must be informed of these in a
comprehensible manner allowing them to exercise their rights. Controllers have
primary responsibility for dealing with data subject requests and responding to
supervisory authorities and have a more extensive scope of liability across the
entire scope of data processing. By contrast, processors are, in essence, only
liable for their own processing activities and merely undertake to support the
controllers in their obligations towards data subjects and authorities.<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">There is one other important difference that
carries special significance in the context of anti-doping: a processor who
acts under instructions can rely on the processing contract with the controller
responsible for the data as a lawful basis for processing.<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title="">[9]</a>
By contrast, if two or more parties qualify as controllers in their own right,
each controller needs to secure its individual lawful basis with respect to the
data subjects. The requirement of lawful processing is entwined with the discussion
around the validity of ‘consent’ to anti-doping regulations.</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b><u>Lawful
basis and problematic character of consent</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Processing of personal data under the GDRP
requires a lawful basis. As relevant to our topic, three types of legitimising
grounds co-exist: i.) grounds rooted in private autonomy (consent or necessity
for performance of a contract with the data subject), ii.) grounds relying on
public interest or overriding interests of the controller (e.g. pursuing a
legal claim), or iii.) a specific basis in Union or national law, e.g. for
performance of a substantial public interest or public health task.<a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title="">[10]</a>
Not all grounds enter into consideration for every category of data; special
categories of data – also known as ‘sensitive’ data under the DPA – have a more
limited number of valid processing grounds.<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title="">[11]</a>
Obviously, a major part of data processed as part of doping control qualifies
as sensitive data as it relates to health,<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title="">[12]</a>
including the data gathered through analysis of doping control samples or collected
as part of TUE applications.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The traditional way for international
sports organisations to impose their rules on their ultimate addressees, i.e.,
the individual athletes, has been through contract, quasi-contractual chains of
submission, or other instruments involving a declaration of consent. The validity
of consent on the part of those who submit to anti-doping regulations is a
recurring matter for debate, in particular as its informed and voluntary
character is generally described at best as limited and more frequently as
purely illusory. The issue has been scrutinised in particular with respect to submission
to proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (‘CAS’),<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title="">[13]</a>
which the WADC imposes as a legal remedy in international doping disputes. While
acknowledging the ‘constrained’ nature of the athlete’s consent, the Swiss Supreme
Court accepts the validity of arbitration clauses in sports regulations in the
name of the needs for swift and competent resolution of sport disputes. It has,
however, imposed certain limits on the extent to which an athlete can entrust
their fate to the sports resolution system. As decided in the <i>Cañas v. ATP</i> case, an athlete cannot validly
waive in advance the right to challenge the CAS award in front of the Supreme
Court in disciplinary matters.<a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title="">[14]</a>
In <i>Pechstein v. Switzerland</i>, the
European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) was asked to discuss the status of an
arbitration clause in the context of doping proceedings. It reached the same
conclusion that the only choice offered to the athlete was either to accept the
clause in order to be able to make a living by practising her sport at a
professional level or to refuse it and completely give up on practising at such
level. As a result of this restriction on the athlete’s professional life, it
was not possible to argue that she accepted the clause ‘in a free and unequivocal
manner’.<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title="">[15]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In both cases, the findings were ultimately
of little consequence for the sports sector. The Swiss Supreme Court only
reviews CAS awards through an extremely narrow lens so that the power to set
strategic jurisprudence in sports matters remains with the CAS panels, whether
or not athletes retain their rights to challenge the award. Similarly, in the
Claudia Pechstein matter, the only shortcoming found in the ruling was the lack
of an option for a public hearing in CAS proceedings. Absence of genuine
consent has thus been – expressly or implicitly – compensated for by courts
through procedural safeguards, in an effort to ensure that athletes still
benefit overall from a system of justice broadly compliant with Article 6 of
the European Convention on Human Rights.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Data protection issues create a greater
challenge here, since the GDPR explicitly requires consent to be ‘freely given’,
in addition to being informed.<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title="">[16]</a>
The same is true under the Swiss DPA.<a href="#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title="">[17]</a>
The GDPR does not accommodate compensatory mechanisms to account for the
‘fictional’ character of consent in the sports context: consent that is not
optional is not free, and consent that is not free is not valid. Importantly, free
consent also presupposes that consent can be withdrawn at any time as easily as
it was given and without significant detrimental consequences for the data
subject.<a href="#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" title="">[18]</a> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">I will not delve here into how anti-doping
organisations can fulfil the requirement of ‘informed consent’, which as per
the GDPR requires “<i>intelligible and
easily accessible form, using clear and plain language</i>”.<a href="#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" title="">[19]</a>
The template information notices (<a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/ADAMS_Athlete_Consent_Form_Doping_Control_Data_EN.pdf">here</a>
and <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/dopingcontrolform_20181122_enfr.pdf">here</a>)
proposed by WADA currently in effect inform athletes, in essence, that their
data may be processed based on various legal grounds, may be accessed by
various entities around the world according to various data protections laws,
which may offer them various levels of protection, and that they may have
various rights and obligations under these laws. It is questionable whether explanations
in this form would satisfy the requirements for informed consent. Still, adequate
information appears at least achievable with appropriate and individualised
legal drafting supported by a data protection specialist. The question of free
consent is a much more delicate one since it is not in the hands of anti-doping
organisations to give athletes a genuine choice in this respect.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In spite of the potential financial
implications, one could argue that consent is freely given where the athlete
can choose at any time to withdraw consent to data processing, with the sole
consequence of losing the benefit of the services attached to the ‘contractual’
relationship with their sports authorities, i.e. the right to participate in
sports competitions. This would, for example, suppose that an athlete notified
of a testing attempt could elect to either submit or instead declare immediate
retirement from sport without any further consequences. Under the current rules,
however, such withdrawal of consent would trigger disciplinary sanctions, which
may include ineligibility or fines depending on the sport, and in any event,
will have a significant impact on the athlete’s reputation. The templates
proposed by WADA explicitly warn athletes about these consequences, as well as
the fact that anti-doping organisations may retain and continue processing
their data in spite of any withdrawal (see <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/dopingcontrolform_20181122_enfr.pdf">here</a>
and <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/adams/athlete-information-notice">here</a>).
In fact, the WADC provides that the results management and disciplinary process
may be initiated or may continue in spite of the athlete announcing their
retirement from sport.<a href="#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" title="">[20]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">To this day, one is still awaiting a realistic
proposal that would allow consent to anti-doping regulations to be genuinely
freely given. Most stakeholders would agree that there is no viable manner of making
compliance with anti-doping rules optional for athletes without undermining the
very notion of a level playing field.<a href="#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" title="">[21]</a>
Unlike the relatively benign implications that lack of genuine consent had for
the sport dispute resolution system so far, the impossibility of creating the prerequisites
for free consent to anti-doping regulations is far more consequential in the
data protection context. Indeed, it precludes reliance on consent as a reliable
lawful basis that can be used globally by international sports governing bodies
to secure the lawfulness of their data processing. This is the case unless
courts would be willing to go against the explicit wording of data protection
laws and tolerate ‘forced’ consent as a lawful basis in the context of sport.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">As the Swiss Federal Council noted in their
official communication on the Swiss Sport Act, the questionable validity of athlete
consent makes it necessary to create express legal provisions authorising
anti-doping organisations to collect and process personal data for anti-doping
purposes.<a href="#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" title="">[22]</a> Under
the GDPR, processing sensitive data relying on an interest of substantial
public or public health interest equally requires a legal basis in EU or
relevant national law of a member state. Without intervention of national
lawmakers to recognise anti-doping as a matter of ‘substantial public interest’
or ‘public health’ interest and identify those entities that are entitled by
law to process data together with an appropriate description of the admissible scope
and purposes for such processing, sports organisations will continue to rest on
shaky ground when it comes to data processing and in particular processing of
sensitive data.</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b><u>Proportionality
of treatment</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The issue of proportionality is relevant for
almost any component of an anti-doping system. It is recognised by CAS panels
and courts as an internationally accepted standard,<a href="#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" title="">[23]</a>
as part of the assessment for deciding whether an encroachment upon individual
freedoms is justifiable and justified in any given case. Proportionality is
frequently debated in connection with the severity of the disciplinary sanctions
set forth in the WADC,<a href="#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" title="">[24]</a>
but it is also a test that every other aspect of the regulation must stand up
to.<a href="#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" title="">[25]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">An important limb of the proportionality
test is the ‘necessity’ of a measure having regard to the rights affected. This
aspect was recently addressed by the European Court for Human Rights in the
context of French legislation on the whereabouts regime applicable to
professional athletes and its compatibility with privacy: “the general‑interest
considerations that make them necessary are particularly important and, in the
Court’s view, justify the restrictions on the applicants’ rights under Article
8 of the Convention. Reducing or removing the requirements of which the
applicants complain would be liable to increase the dangers of doping to their
health and that of the entire sporting community, and would run counter to the
European and international consensus on the need for unannounced testing.”<a href="#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" title="">[26]</a> The ECtHR conducted its assessment with respect to the right
to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights without
having regard to specific data protection provisions. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The requirement of proportionality is a
pillar of data protection in all its aspects, from the decision to collect the
data to its retention. It is enshrined both in the GDPR and in the DPA<a href="#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" title="">[27]</a>
and is notably also highlighted in the WADA ISPPPI.<a href="#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28" title="">[28]</a>
Concerns about proportionality of the anti-doping system were <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/item-detail.cfm?item_id=629492">expressed</a>
by EU data protection advisory authorities as early as 2008,<a href="#_ftn29" name="_ftnref29" title="">[29]</a>
and numerous exchanges with WADA have ensued.<a href="#_ftn30" name="_ftnref30" title="">[30]</a>
Various adjustments have been made to the ISPPPI since then with a significant
review to adapt the ISPPPI to the GDPR requirements, and a new set of <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/legal/guidelines-privacy-protection-guidelines">WADA
Guidelines</a> adopted in 2018. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Still, the threats on proportionality are
bound to be ubiquitous in a context where standardisation is a guiding
principle of regulation. For example, the ISPPPI (Annex A) enshrines retention
times based on different categories of data (TUE, samples, whereabouts, etc.), but
with only two different retention periods overall: 18 months (newly being
reconsidered in the draft revised version as 12 months) or 10 years. These have
been criticised again in the ongoing stakeholder <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/ispppi_commentsreceived_04122018.pdf">consultation
process</a> as being insufficiently differentiated to be adequate.<a href="#_ftn31" name="_ftnref31" title="">[31]</a>
Indeed, while a column in the Annex formally indicates for each category that the
retention time has been chosen based on “<i>necessity</i>”
or “<i>proportionality</i>” criteria, Annex
A states <i>in limine</i> that the
limitation to two retention periods is “<i>for
practical reasons</i>”. These justifications cannot be easily reconciled. To
properly account for proportionality, anti-doping organisations would need to
conduct their own assessment in a more individualised fashion, adapted to their
athlete pool and sport. However, as in many other domains of doping control, one
wonders how many of them will have the resources, competences and willingness
to look beyond WADA prescriptions. Also, since most of the data must be
processed through the ADAMS database managed by WADA, anti-doping organisations
may have limited effective power over the set-up of the data deletion process.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The proportionality principle is also connected
to another fundamental requirement, which is that data processing must remain
within the ‘purpose’ defined (‘purpose limitation’ principle). The ISPPPI
contains a list of purposes for which anti-doping organisations may process
data. However, the ISPPPI gives anti-doping organisations an option to decide
to process data for other purposes related to the fight against doping,
provided they carry out a documented assessment. The WADA Guidelines propose a
template for ‘new purpose assessment’, and indicate that such new purpose could
encompass purposes that were not contemplated in the WADC nor perhaps could
even be envisaged at the time of collection. The <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/ispppi_redline_draft2.0_december2018.pdf">draft
revised ISPPPI</a> seems to go even further down this line: “<i>In certain contexts, it may be appropriate
or necessary for Anti-Doping Organizations/WADA to Process Personal Information
for additional purposes, […] besides those already permitted or required by the
Code, the International Standard or expressly required by law, in order to
engage effectively in the fight against doping</i>”.<a href="#_ftn32" name="_ftnref32" title="">[32]</a>
It is unclear how this assessment is to be effectively implemented especially
for sensitive data, be it under the assumption of a consensual basis or of one
based on national law recognising substantial public interests for anti-doping
activities. In both cases, if the actual purposes for which the data may be
used are <i>in limbo</i> awaiting potential
reassessment for ‘new’ purposes, it is questionable whether informed consent or
a sufficiently predictable legal basis respectively could even be created.<a href="#_ftn33" name="_ftnref33" title="">[33]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">As the claims for more ‘evidence-based’
approaches and stronger monitoring of anti-doping programs grow louder, more
thought could be spent on proportionality and purpose limitation of data
processing in anti-doping. Most of the discussion so far has revolved around
the intrusiveness of the whereabouts requirements. Whereabouts information,
however, is only collected from a limited number of high-profile athletes
(i.e., those included within a registered testing pool) and is only a fraction
of the data collected as part of anti-doping programs. In the
<i>FNASS et al. v. France</i> ruling, the
ECtHR essentially relied on the pleas of the anti-doping movement and
governments to find that the fight against doping pursues a public health
interest and implements it in a proportionate way. In doing so, the ECtHR seems to perpetuate a tendency of CAS and other
courts to take policy documents and consensus statements - whether enshrined or
not in international law instruments such as the UNESCO Convention against
Doping in Sport - as proof of the reality of the claims they contain<a href="#_ftn34" name="_ftnref34" title="">[34]</a>
without requiring much supporting evidence. In many instances, this is
technically justified by placing on the contesting party the burden of
demonstrating any lack of proportionality.<a href="#_ftn35" name="_ftnref35" title="">[35]</a>
On a higher level, however, it tends to create a presumption that any doubt
must benefit the cause of anti-doping.<a href="#_ftn36" name="_ftnref36" title="">[36]</a>
This may lead to self-perpetuating policy biases based on circular reasoning by
justifying new measures through previous, unverified claims.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Data protection laws, with their detailed requirements
and descriptions of data subject rights, may offer a foundation for a more
granular analysis than general human rights provisions under the undetermined heading
of ‘privacy’. Opportunities for legal analysis may still be hindered by the
fact that an argument related to data protection is hard to build into a
defence when athletes – or their counsel – would typically start seriously
thinking about these issues only once they become subject to investigations or
discipline for a potential breach of the anti-doping rules. CAS panels have
been rather generous in admitting evidence unlawfully obtained against
individuals charged in disciplinary proceedings.<a href="#_ftn37" name="_ftnref37" title="">[37]</a>
It could thus prove extremely difficult – perhaps even counter-productive as a
defence strategy – for an athlete to object to the admissibility of doping
control data obtained in breach of data protection laws, in particular when the
objection relates to a breach that leaves as much discretion to the panel as
proportionality of data collection or retention. CAS panels have repeatedly
recognised the fight against doping as an interest that overrides individual
freedoms without carrying out much of an individualised balance of the
interests at stake. <a href="#_ftn38" name="_ftnref38" title="">[38]</a> &nbsp;More promising impetus could come from a
random athlete seeking advice from supervisory authorities through the avenues
offered by his or her national data protection laws prior to exposure to a
positive test or other disciplinary action. Unfortunately, much like consumers,
athletes often seem to show little interest in their privacy until they are
confronted with some tangible detrimental consequences.</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b><u>A
true plague or a real opportunity?</u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Some may view recent developments in data
protection laws as just another headache for sports governing bodies and deplore
the advent of a new hurdle for anti-doping organisations who aspire to take
their tasks under the World Anti-Doping Program seriously. Anti-doping
organisations advocate that they are carrying out a mission of public interest.
As we have seen, this view has been supported by various bodies and courts
around the world and is also reflected in the UNESCO Convention against Doping
in Sport. However, the GDPR does not regard public interest as an absolute
basis for all data processing; in particular, sensitive data cannot be
processed on the sole basis of an alleged public interest unless such public
interest is substantial or related to public health, and its modalities are set
out in national or EU law. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In a time where the credibility of existing
structures and procedures within anti-doping authorities is questioned, the
challenge arising from data protection standards can also be perceived as an
opportunity for the anti-doping system. The ISPPPI and related WADA Guidelines,
unfortunately, do not purport to provide solutions to the various crucial
challenge set out above but merely invite anti-doping organisations to act in
accordance with their applicable data protection laws. They give little guidance
on how this is to be achieved in the event that these laws conflict with their
duties under the WADC. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Developments in data protection force
anti-doping organisations to look at their structures, legal status and their
relationships with other organisations within the system. These developments
should also have the effect of prompting national legislators to take measures
more supportive of anti-doping policies in this domain, and in particular by
making sure that sports governing bodies benefit from an appropriate legal
basis for processing data, including sensitive data. Given that the very
purpose of the WADC is to harmonise the regulation of doping in sport worldwide
and that this objective is routinely invoked to justify restrictions on athlete
rights, it would seem somewhat counterintuitive not to afford all athletes the
same level of protection where their data is concerned. If there is truly a
general international consensus on the legitimacy of the fight against doping
and this consensus is supported by the State parties to the UNESCO Convention, those
States, at a minimum, must be willing to give anti-doping organisations the
means to carry out their tasks in a legally sustainable manner, unless and
until these States are ready to engage in a fundamental overhaul of the current
system.</p>
<hr width="33%" size="1" align="justify">
<p id="ftn1" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016R0679">Regulation
(EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016</a>
on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal
data and on the free movement of such data. The GDPR started to apply on 25 May
2018. In theory, all entities conducting data processing activities within the
scope of the GDPR ought to have secured compliance as of this effective date.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn2" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> Recital 112 refers to requirements for cross-border data transfers
and provides: “Those derogations should in particular apply to data transfers
required and necessary […] for public health, for example […] in order to
reduce and/or eliminate doping in sport”.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn3" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title="">[3]</a> Article 3 para. 2 of the GDPR regarding territorial scope of
application.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn4" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title="">[4]</a> See Articles 4.4 of the WADC for TUEs, 5.2 for testing, and 7.1 for
results management.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn5" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title="">[5]</a> See e.g. CAS <a href="https://www.usada.org/wp-content/uploads/CAS-Award-Bruyneel-Celaya-Marti.pdf">2014/A/3598,
3599 &amp; 3618</a>, in which the authority of USADA to initiate proceedings
against Johan Bruyneel and others was challenged. </p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn6" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title="">[6]</a> Article 4 (Definitions) of the GDPR. Note that a processor within
the meaning of the GDPR may itself choose to delegate part of its activities to
a sub-processor, if and to the extent authorised by the controller.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn7" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title="">[7]</a> See the <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/controllers-and-processors/how-do-you-determine-whether-you-are-a-controller-or-processor/#2.">guidance
and examples</a> given by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn8" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title="">[8]</a> See Chapter IV of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn9" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title="">[9]</a> Article 28 para. 3 of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn10" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title="">[10]</a> Article 6 of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn11" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title="">[11]</a> Article 9 of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn12" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title="">[12]</a> Article 9 para. 1 of the GDPR; Article 3 lit. c of the DPA.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn13" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title="">[13]</a> See e.g. Duval A (2017) <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2920555">Not in My
Name! Claudia Pechstein and the Post-Consensual Foundations of the Court of
Arbitration for Sport</a>, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law
&amp; International Law (MPIL) Research Paper No. 2017-01; Rigozzi A &amp;
Robert-Tissot F (2015) <a href="https://lk-k.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/RIGOZZI-ROBERT-TISSOT-in-ASA-Special-Series-41-Sports-Arb.-A-Coach-for-Other-Players-2015-Consent-in-Sports-Arb.-Its-Multiple-Aspects-pp.-59-94.pdf">"Consent"
in Sports Arbitration: Its Multiple Aspects</a>. In: Geisinger &amp;
Trabaldo-De Mestral (eds) Sports Arbitration: A Coach for Other Players? ASA
Series 41, Jurisnet NY, pp 59-95;</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn14" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title="">[14]</a> Swiss Supreme Court Decision, <a href="https://law.marquette.edu/assets/sports-law/pdf/2012-conf-canas-english.pdf">4P.172/2006</a>,
22 March 2007. </p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn15" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title="">[15]</a> ECtHR Decision 22 October 2018, <i>Mutu
&amp; Pechstein v. Switzerland</i>, no 40575/10 et 67474/10, para. 114.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn16" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title="">[16]</a> Article 4 (Definitions) of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn17" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" title="">[17]</a> Article 4 para. 5 of the DPA.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn18" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" title="">[18]</a> Article 7 para. 3 of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn19" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" title="">[19]</a> Article 7 para. 2 of the GDPR.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn20" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" title="">[20]</a> Article 7.11 of the WADC.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn21" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" title="">[21]</a> Though it is often debated to what extent exactly the performance
enhancing effect of individual prohibited substances and methods is
established. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6422964/">Heuberger
J, Cohen A (2018) Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for
Performance-Enhancing Effects. Sports
Med. 2019; 49(4): 525–539</a>.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn22" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" title="">[22]</a> <a href="https://www.admin.ch/opc/fr/federal-gazette/2009/7401.pdf">Message du Conseil fédéral du 11
nov. 2009, FF 09.082</a>, pp 7450/7451&nbsp;: «&nbsp;Aujourd’hui, les contrôles antidopage
relevant du sport de droit privé reposent sur une déclaration de consentement
du sportif. Cette déclaration doit être librement consentie. Or, cette liberté
n’est pas garantie, dans la mesure où le refus de donner son consentement peut
entraîner l’exclusion de la manifestation ou la perte de la licence&nbsp;».</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn23" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" title="">[23]</a> CAS 2005/C/976 &amp; 986, <i>FIFA &amp; WADA</i>, para. 138&nbsp;; CJEU decision <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62004CJ0519"><i>Meca-Medina
&amp; Majcen v. Commission</i></a> (C-519/04).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn24" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" title="">[24]</a> A recent example: CAS 2018/A/5546, <i>Guerrero v. FIFA</i>, CAS 2018/A/5571, <i>WADA v. FIFA &amp; Guerrero</i>, paras 85 <i>et seq</i>.; <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/WADC-Legal-Opinion-on-Draft-2015-Code-3.0-EN.pdf">Legal
Opinion</a> by Jean-Paul Costa on the 2015 revision of the WADC.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn25" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" title="">[25]</a> Viret (2016), Evidence in Anti-Doping at the Intersection of
Science &amp; Law, T.M.C Asser, p. 133; Since its 2015 version, the WADC has
included an explicit reference to proportionality as one of the key
considerations underlying its drafting. See introductory section “Purpose,
Scope and Organization of the World Anti-Doping Program and the Code”.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn26" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" title="">[26]</a>ECtHR, FNASS et al. v. France (48151/11 and 77769/13), para. 191.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn27" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" title="">[27]</a> Article 5(1)(c) of the GDPR, whereas the data must be “adequate,
relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which
they are processed (‘data minimisation’)”.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn28" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28" title="">[28]</a> Section 5.0 ISPPI “Processing Relevant and Proportionate Personal
Information”.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn29" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref29" name="_ftn29" title="">[29]</a> Art. 29 Working Party, now replaced by the European Data Protection
Board under the GDPR. </p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn30" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref30" name="_ftn30" title="">[30]</a> See <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/search?f%5B0%5D=field_topic%3A126">collection
of legal documents</a> on WADA website.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn31" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref31" name="_ftn31" title="">[31]</a> Comment to revised ISPPPI by NADA Germany, ad Annex Retention
Times.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn32" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref32" name="_ftn32" title="">[32]</a> Comment ad Article 5.3(d) draft ISPPPI.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn33" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref33" name="_ftn33" title="">[33]</a> The EU Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rules-business-and-organisations/principles-gdpr/purpose-data-processing/can-we-use-data-another-purpose_en">warns</a>
that extension of purpose is not possible where processing was based on consent
or a provision of law without renewing the consent or creating a new legal
basis.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn34" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref34" name="_ftn34" title="">[34]</a> See e.g. preamble of the UNESCO Convention “Concerned by the use of
doping by athletes in sport and the consequences thereof for their health, the
principle of fair play, the elimination of cheating and the future of sport”.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn35" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref35" name="_ftn35" title="">[35]</a> See already in CJEU decision <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62004CJ0519"><i>Meca-Medina &amp; Majcen v. Commission</i></a>
(C-519/04) regarding the proportionality of threshold levels.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn36" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref36" name="_ftn36" title="">[36]</a> <a href="https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/CRJ-EA14/hal-01767063v1">Maisonneuve Mathieu, La CEDH et les
obligations de localisation des sportifs&nbsp;: le doute profite à la
conventionnalité de la lutte contre le dopage</a>, note sous CEDH, 5<sup>e</sup>
sect., 18 January 2018, Fédération nationale des associations et des syndicats
sportifs (FNASS) et autres c. France, req. Nos 48151/11 et 77769/13. Journal
d’actualité des droits européenes, Centre de recherches et de documentation
européennes et internationales, 2018.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn37" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref37" name="_ftn37" title="">[37]</a> CAS 2016/A/4487, <i>IAAF v. Melnikov</i>, para. 108.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn38" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref38" name="_ftn38" title="">[38]</a> CAS 2009/A/1879, <i>Valverde v. CONI</i>, para. 139.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/how-data-protection-crystallises-key-legal-challenges-in-anti-doping-by-marjolaine-viret
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/how-data-protection-crystallises-key-legal-challenges-in-anti-doping-by-marjolaine-viret#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=7b3edef8-689b-4326-a1a4-ec6ea1c2ad4bTue, 07 May 2019 15:05:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law CommentariesInternational Sports Law PublicationsAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=7b3edef8-689b-4326-a1a4-ec6ea1c2ad4b0http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=7b3edef8-689b-4326-a1a4-ec6ea1c2ad4bhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/how-data-protection-crystallises-key-legal-challenges-in-anti-doping-by-marjolaine-viret#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=7b3edef8-689b-4326-a1a4-ec6ea1c2ad4bWhat happens in Switzerland stays in Switzerland: The Striani Judgment of the Brussels Court of Appeals
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In the last five years, the Striani
case has been the main sword of Damocles hanging over UEFA’s Financial Fair
Play Regulations. At the very least, the only real judicial threat they have
faced (apart from the relatively harmless challenge mounted in the <a href="https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/CASdecisions/02/42/66/95/2426695_DOWNLOAD.pdf">Galatasaray case</a> at the CAS). Indeed, a Belgian
player agent, Daniele Striani, represented by Bosman’s former lawyer Jean-Louis
Dupont, attempted, in various fora, to challenge the compatibility of UEFA’s
CL&amp;FFP Regulations with EU law. Striani lodged a complaint with the
European Commission (which was quickly <a>rejected</a> in October 2014) and initiated a private
action for damages before the Brussels Court of First Instance. The latter
deemed itself not competent to decide on the matter, but nevertheless accepted to
order a provisory stay of the enforcement of the UEFA FFP Regulations pending a
preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the EU (see Ben van Rompuy’s
blog on the case <a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/the-brussels-court-judgment-on-financial-fair-play-a-futile-attempt-to-pull-off-a-bosman-by-ben-van-rompuy">here</a>). The CJEU unsurprisingly <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62015CO0299">rejected</a> to enter into the matter, but UEFA and Striani
decided to appeal the first instance ruling to the Court of Appeal, which
rendered its decision on 11 April. It is unclear at this stage whether Striani
will attempt to challenge it at the Belgian Cour de Cassation (Highest Civil
Court), however this would entail considerable risks and costs and his lawyers
to date have not indicated that they would do so (see <a href="https://www.dhnet.be/sports/football/la-cour-d-appel-se-declare-incompetente-pour-examiner-la-legalite-du-fair-play-financier-5cb0bb069978e2633399c2dc">here</a>).&nbsp;
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">While the ruling of the Court of
Appeal does not touch upon the much-discussed question of the compatibility of
UEFA’s FFP Regulations with EU law (see our many blogs on the question <a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/the-evolution-of-uefa-s-financial-fair-play-rules-part-1-background-and-eu-law-by-christopher-flanagan">here</a>, <a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/the-proportionality-test-under-art-101-1-tfeu-and-the-legitimacy-of-uefa-financial-fair-play-regulations">here</a> and <a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/the-evolution-of-uefa-s-financial-fair-play-rules-part-2-the-legal-challenges-by-christopher-flanagan">here</a>), it remains an interesting decision to
discuss broader questions related to the procedural ease in challenging
regulatory decisions passed by sports governing bodies (SGBs) based in
Switzerland. Competition law constitutes the main legal tool available to
sports stakeholders looking to challenge existing regulatory arrangements from
the outside (e.g. not going through the internal political systems of the SGBs
or the CAS route). Recent cases, such as the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/cases/dec_docs/40208/40208_1384_5.pdf">ISU decision</a> of the European Commission, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6265-088-6_11">Pechstein case</a> in front of the German courts or
the <a href="https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2019/27_02_2019_DOSB_IOC.html">Rule 40 decision</a> of the German competition
authority, have demonstrated the potency of competition law to question the
legality of the rules and decisions of the SGBs.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>
In this regard, the decision of the Brussels Court of Appeal narrows the range
of parties allowed to challenge in European courts the SGBs’ rules and
decisions on the basis of competition law. </p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify"><b><i>I.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</i></b><b><i><u>A Strict Interpretation of Article 5(3) of the Lugano Convention</u></i></b>&nbsp;
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Striani, supported by a number of fans
based in France and the UK (presumably PSG and Manchester City supporters), was
challenging the UEFA FFP rules for their indirect effects. In short, the core
claim was that the FFP Regulations, by curtailing the ability of clubs to
invest on the transfer market, had the effect of depriving Striani from the
chance to earn more money for his services as an intermediary and the fans from
a chance to see better players join their favorite team and therefore improve
the quality of the team’s performance. Undoubtedly, these effects were not
primary objectives of the FFP rules, which were aimed at constraining the ability
of clubs to invest at a loss. Moreover, the rules were only constraining clubs
qualified to the European competitions. The question from the point of view of
private international law, was whether Striani and the fans could rely on
Article 5(3) <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A22007A1221%2803%29">Lugano Convention</a> to sue UEFA in front of the the Belgian
courts.<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The Court of Appeal acknowledged
that in this case it was dealing with an action in liability for a breach of
competition law but sided with UEFA in considering that the hypothetical damage
suffered by the claimants in Belgium was too indirect for it to be competent. It
came to this conclusion after a journey through well-known European private
international law judgments, such as <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?&amp;num=21/76">Mines de Potasse d’Alsace</a>, <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A61988CJ0220">Dumez France</a> or <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A61993CJ0068">Shevill</a>, and other less known (mainly French and
Belgian) judgments in cases involving Swiss-based SGBs.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a>
In the present case, it noted that «&nbsp;the challenged UEFA Regulation does
not prohibit M. Striani and MAD Management […] from exercising the activity of
an intermediary in Belgium or abroad, nor does it regulate the conditions in
which this activity is to be exercised&nbsp;».<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title="">[4]</a>
Moreover, the targeted provisions «&nbsp;do not prohibit the relevant clubs from
having recourse to agents […] nor do they limit this activity&nbsp;».<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">[5]</a>
In fact, the prejudice alleged by Striani and MAD Management «&nbsp;is only an
indirect consequence of the adoption of the challenged UEFA Regulation&nbsp;»,
as «&nbsp;it is not related directly to the activity of the claimants and does
not have direct consequences on this activity in Belgium or abroad&nbsp;».<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title="">[6]</a>
Thus, the Court decided that jurisdictions of the seat of UEFA (the Swiss courts)
are sole competent to hear the matter. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">This conclusion is not surprising. It
was also the one reached by the first instance court, which however still decided
quite surprisingly to send a preliminary reference to the CJEU and to order a
stay in the enforcement of the UEFA FFP Regulations (the latter move was
condemned by the Court of Appeal). Yet, it carries implications in the context
of transnational sports regulation. Indeed, this is a domain in which the
consumers (e.g. fans) are heavily impacted by decisions taken by international SGBs
located mainly in Switzerland. The regulatory decisions of these bodies have
undoubtedly structural effects on the way a particular sport is experienced by
the fans. Moreover, due to the monopoly positions of the SGBs over their sports,
these decisions are rarely challenged by competitors (such as the <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076461/international-swimming-league-to-have-first-year-budget-of-20-million">International Swimming League</a>). They often bind the fans and
determine the quality of the competitions they are watching and are doing so
without providing them any type of say in the regulatory process. Sure, fans
(or agents) will still be able to sue the SGBs in Swiss courts, but those have
proven extremely ‘benevolent’ vis-à-vis the SGBs and are unlikely to apply EU
competition law. In short, the Belgium court has consolidated the exclusion of actors
indirectly affected by the decisions of the SGBs from European courts. What
happens in Switzerland stays in Switzerland…</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify"><i>II.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</i><b><i><u>The irresponsibility of the URBSFA for UEFA’s decisions </u></i></b><i><u></u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The second strategy used by
Striani’s lawyers to anchor the dispute in Belgium was their attempt to involve
the Belgium football federation, URBSFA, in the case. Indeed, as the URBSFA is
seated in Belgium, there is no issue with regard to the competence of the
Belgium courts in its regard. However, here the problem arises in connection to
the URBSFA’s causal contribution to the adoption and enforcement of the
challenged UEFA FFP Regulations. Indeed, the court held that&nbsp;«&nbsp;the
fact that URBSFA is a member of UEFA does not turn it into a co-author of the
regulations; the reasoning of the claimants ignores the separate legal
personality of UEFA&nbsp;».<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title="">[7]</a>
The claimants were also alleging that the URBSFA was contributing to the
enforcement of the FIFA rules, yet the court finds that they are
«&nbsp;confusing the licensing role conferred to the national federations […]
with the specific rules regarding the financial balance of clubs enshrined in
Articles 57 to 63 of the attacked regulations&nbsp;».<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a>
In fact, the «&nbsp;federal regulations of the URBSFA do not impose any
constraints, or sanctions, with regard to the challenged break-even rules;
these are of the sole competence of UEFA.&nbsp;»<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title="">[9]</a>
Hence, the court concludes that no particular wrongful conduct can be
attributed to the URBSFA linked to the harm alleged by the claimants. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">By doing so, the Court of Appeal holds
onto the formalist idea of the separate corporate personalities and brushes
over the fact that national federations are at least politically co-responsible
for the policies adopted, e.g. they hold the voting power inside the international
federations. In this context, invoking the corporate veil might let national
federations too easily off the hook, even though it is certainly true that a
single national federation does not have a decisive voting power or influence
inside an international SGB. Here, there is an interesting parallel with the
functioning of the European Union itself, as it seems that decisions taken by
UEFA (not unlike the EU’s) are not politically (or in this case legally) attributable
to the individual member associations (the famous blame Brussels culture). The
idea of a joint action between national and international federations leading
to the exercise of collective power might be more suitable to capture the
transnational regulatory dynamics at play in sports and could lead to some form
of joint liability. In any event, this part of the decision highlights another
difficulty in anchoring a case outside of Switzerland, as national federations will
often be deemed an inadequate defendant due to their relatively passive role in
the adoption and enforcement of the regulations of the international SGBs. <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Conclusion </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Striani’s crusade against UEFA’s FFP
Regulations came to a strange end. While legal scholars and practitioners have
been discussing at length whether FFP can be deemed compatible with EU law or
not (I’ve spoken in favor of compatibility under certain circumstances, but many
others have disputed it), the much-awaited ruling did not even touch upon this
question. Indeed, the Brussels Court of Appeal simply denied its competence to
hear the matter and sentenced the claimants to pay quite high legal fees to
UEFA. By doing so, it did not simply put an end to a case that felt quite
artificial and which might have been a pawn in a wider game between UEFA and
some powerful clubs, it also closed the door on a variety of stakeholders willing
to challenge the rules and decisions of SGBs outside of Switzerland. Indeed, if
this interpretation of the Lugano Convention were to stand, it would for
example exclude fans from being able to launch liability claims, on their home
judicial turf, against international SGBs for the damage inflicted to their
clubs.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Besides those directly impacted, in
the case of FFP primarily the clubs (would the players be sufficiently directly
affected? Maybe, maybe not), those that wish to challenge the rules and
decisions of the SGBs are condemned to turn to the Swiss courts, which are
rather well-known for their deference to the wide regulatory autonomy of international
SGBs. In short, what happens in Switzerland (e.g. the adoption and enforcement
of the SGBs’ regulations) is to stay judicially in Switzerland. This will be a reassuring
news for the network of Swiss private associations that rule over international
sports as it will reduce the risk of facing civil litigation outside of their well-chartered
home turf. In fact, it is extremely rare for those directly affected (e.g. the
clubs and athletes) to be ready to go to court to challenge them. As evidenced
by the case of Bosman or Pechstein, the short-term costs in doing so are
disproportionately high (boycott and career-end for the former, bankruptcy for
the latter) while the chances of success remain quite limited. Similarly, a
football club is unlikely to take the risk of going against UEFA or FIFA,
unless it has nothing left to lose (e.g. like SV Wilhelmshaven). In sum, even
if I believe UEFA’s FFP rules could be allowed to stand under EU law, this
ruling sheltered UEFA from having to deal with this question, at least for the
time being.</p><hr width="33%" size="1" align="justify">
<p id="ftn1" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a>
In general, see B. Van Rompuy, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2767467">The Role of
EU Competition Law in Tackling Abuse of Regulatory Power by Sports Associations,</a>
<i>Maastricht Journal of European and
Comparative Law</i> (2015), vol. 22, nr. 2</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn2" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">[2]</a>
Article 5(3) Lugano Convention provides that:&nbsp;A person domiciled in a
State bound by this Convention may, in another State bound by this Convention,
be sued in matters relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict, in the courts for
the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn3" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title="">[3]</a>
See the judgments cited in Cour d’appel Bruxelles, UEFA c. Striani &amp; co, 11
avril 2019, 2015/AR/1282, paras 40 &amp; 41.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn4" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title="">[4]</a>
«&nbsp;En effet, le Règlement UEFA critiqué n'interdit pas à M. Striani et à
MAD Management, qui se présentent comme agent de joueurs de football en
Belgique (le premier comme personne physique et la seconde étant la société à
travers laquelle le premier exerce son activité), d'exercer cette activité
d'agent, en Belgique ou à l'étranger ni ne règle les conditions d'exercice de
cette activité.&nbsp;» Ibid, para. 42.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn5" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title="">[5]</a>
«&nbsp;Par ailleurs, ces dispositions ne font nullement interdiction aux clubs
concernés de recourir aux services d'agents, tels les demandeurs originaires, ni
ne limitent cette activité. Ibid.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn6" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title="">[6]</a>
«&nbsp;ll découle de ce qui précède que, sans préjuger de la matérialité du
dommage invoqué par M.Striani et MAD Management, ce dommage, à le supposer
établi, n'est qu'une suite indirecte du l'adoption du Règlement UEFA querellé.
Le Règlement querellé ne concerne pas directement l'activité des demandeurs
originaires et n'a pas de conséquence directe sur cette activité, en Belgique
ou ailleurs.&nbsp;» Ibid.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn7" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title="">[7]</a>
«&nbsp;L’URBSFA n'est pas l'auteur des règles d'équilibre financier prévues au
Règlement UEFA. Le seul fait que I'URBSFA soit membre de l'UEFA ne la rend pas
co-auteur du Règlement; le raisonnement des intimés fait fi de la personnalité
juridique distincte de l'UEFA.&nbsp;» Ibid, para. 48.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn8" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title="">[8]</a>
«&nbsp;Ce faisant, les intimés entretiennent la confusion entre le rôle dévolu
aux fédérations nationales pour l'octroi des licences, non critiqué en tant que
tel, et les règles particulières concernant l'équilibre financier, prévues aux
articles 57 à 63 du Règlement querellé.&nbsp;» Ibid.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn9" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title="">[9]</a>
«&nbsp;Le Règlement fédéral de l'URBSFA ne comporte dès lors pas d'exigence, ni
de sanction, concernant les règles d'équilibre financier querellée; celles-ci
sont uniquement du ressort de l'UEFA.&nbsp;» Ibid. </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/what-happens-in-switzerland-stays-in-switzerland-the-striani-judgment-of-the-brussels-court-of-appeals
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/what-happens-in-switzerland-stays-in-switzerland-the-striani-judgment-of-the-brussels-court-of-appeals#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=4b439dde-f8fc-4f98-aac3-1c18e9ab38c1Tue, 30 Apr 2019 16:04:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law CasesInternational Sports Law CommentariesAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=4b439dde-f8fc-4f98-aac3-1c18e9ab38c10http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=4b439dde-f8fc-4f98-aac3-1c18e9ab38c1http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/what-happens-in-switzerland-stays-in-switzerland-the-striani-judgment-of-the-brussels-court-of-appeals#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=4b439dde-f8fc-4f98-aac3-1c18e9ab38c1Can European Citizens Participate in National Championships? An Analysis of AG Tanchev’s Opinion in TopFit e.V. Daniele Biffi v Deutscher Leichtathletikverband e.V. - By Thomas Terraz<p align="justify"><b><u>Editor’s note:</u></b> Thomas Terraz is a third
year LL.B. candidate at the International and European Law programme at The
Hague University of Applied Sciences with a specialisation in European Law.
Currently he is pursuing an internship at the T.M.C. Asser Institute with a
focus on International and European Sports Law.
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b><u><br></u></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" align="center">1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <u>Introduction</u><b><u></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">To many it may seem obvious that athletes in a national
championship should only be able to participate if they have the nationality of
the relevant state. The Dutch Road Cycling National Championships should have
Dutch cyclists, and the German Athletics Championships should have German athletes
and so forth. However, in reality, foreign competitors are allowed to
participate in many national championships in the EU, and there is a wide
discrepancy between the rules of national sport governing bodies on this issue.
There is no unified practice when investigating this point by country or by
sport, and rules on participation range from a complete ban on foreign
competitors to absolutely no mention of foreign athletes.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>
Thus, the question arises: should foreign athletes be able to participate in
national sport championships?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will soon
be required to provide an, at least partial, answer to this dilemma as a result
of an application for a <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:12008E267:en:HTML">preliminary
ruling</a>.&nbsp; A German Court has
referred three questions to the CJEU on the case <i>TopFit e.V. Daniele Biffi v
Deutscher Leichtathletikverband e.V. (DLV)</i> which in essence ask whether EU
citizenship rights and in particular, the requirement of non-discrimination on
the basis of nationality, should be applied to non-nationals wishing to
participate in an athletics national championship in Germany. In the meantime,
the Advocate General (AG), who provides a non-binding opinion to the Court
before a decision is delivered, Evgeni Tanchev has delivered an interesting <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=4B3F49AA4B833996675BA4CF1B88F1EE?text=&amp;docid=211444&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=req&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=2571647">opinion</a> on the case. It addresses the claims from the applicants
based on EU citizenship rights and urges the CJEU to instead review the case on
the basis of the freedom of establishment.<a name="_Hlk5873999"></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">This blog will dissect the AG’s opinion to assess the main
arguments put forward in relation to freedom of establishment and EU
citizenship. Furthermore, it will weigh the ramifications this case may have on
the boundaries of EU law in relation to sport. To fully appreciate the AG’s
opinion, it is necessary to first discuss the intriguing factual and legal
background colouring this case. After all, this will not be the first time the CJEU
faces thorny issues concerning discrimination on the basis of nationality and sport. <br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="center">2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<u>Factual Background of
<i>TopFit e.V. Daniele Biffi v Deutscher Leichtathletikverband e.V. (DLV)</i></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The second applicant in this case, Mr. Biffi, is an Italian
resident in Germany since 2003. He works professionally as a personal trainer
and coach and has a <a href="http://www.corso-mental-coaching.it/team_item/daniele-biffi/">website</a> which advertises his services. He has been a member of the
Berlin-based athletics club TopFit (the first applicant) and has competed in
athletics competitions including German national championships within the
senior category of athletes above the age of 35. In these national
competitions, he had his placings recorded and published his results on his
website. In 2016, the DLV changed its rules on non-nationals participating in
national championships across all age categories without notice or transitional
period. The rules were changed to only allow German nationals to compete for
the national title while non-nationals could only participate outside
classification with the permission of the organisers. As a result, Mr. Biffi
was even denied the ability to participate in one of the championships in which
he previously participated without raising a brow. The applicants challenged
the DLV rule on the basis that it is in contravention to the prohibition of
discrimination on the basis of nationality under EU citizenship.&nbsp; </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify">3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<u>European Sports Law
and Nationality Based Discrimination</u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Generally, sport governing bodies aim to have the maximum
autonomy possible to formulate and apply their rules. In the EU, they have
attempted and ultimately failed at securing an absolute autonomy.<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a>
The current relationship between the sport governing bodies and the EU has been
described as a ‘conditional autonomy’ where sport governing bodies may exercise
their discretion in formulating and applying their rules so long as they do not
conflict with EU law.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a>
It should be noted that the CJEU has mainly scrutinized rules from sport
governing bodies which affect economic interests of the parties in the context
of free
movement and competition law. Evidently, this relationship has resulted in a struggle
between sport governing bodies and the EU over a number of topics including
non-discrimination on the basis of nationality.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Traditionally, the CJEU has addressed issues of
non-discrimination on the basis of nationality in sports cases from a free
movement perspective in ensuring that sport rules do not disrupt the EU’s
internal market. For example, when a rule from the Union Cycliste
Internationale (UCI) required that a pacemaker be the same nationality as the
cyclist in the UCI Motor-paced World Championships, the CJEU rendered its ruling on the basis of the provisions establishing the free
movement of workers and service providers. Moreover, the Union of European
Football Associations’ (UEFA) 3 plus 2 rule which allowed football clubs to
limit the number of foreign players who could play in a match to three players
plus two more players who had been ‘assimilated’ by having played a certain
amount of years in the concerned national football association were found in the famous Bosman case to be in contravention of the free movement of workers provisions. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In the present case, the parties have argued the case on the
basis of the prohibition
on the discrimination of nationality flowing from EU
citizenship rights. Based on Article 9 of the Treaty on European Union, all
nationals of an EU member state automatically have EU citizenship. However, these rights are only triggered when other more
specific rights, such as free movement rights, are not activated first. Put
differently, if the facts of a case fall within a free movement right, then the
case can only be inspected in light of the relevant free movement provision;
hence, EU citizenship rights may only be invoked where free movement rights are
not applicable. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Interestingly enough, as the AG points out in his opinion,
the facts of this case could also be framed as a restriction to freedom of
establishment. In any event, the CJEU has yet to address sport rules which
concern non-discrimination on the basis of freedom of establishment or EU
citizenship. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">So how should the CJEU address this issue? Freedom of establishment
or EU citizenship rights?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" align="center">4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <u>Analysing AG Tanchev’s Opinion:
Freedom of Establishment or EU Citizenship Rights?</u></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="justify"><i>4.1.</i><i>Scope of the Freedom of
Establishment</i><i></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Very early on in the opinion, AG Tanchev unambiguously
expresses his preference for analysing the present case through a free movement
lens.<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title="">[4]</a>
He explains that Mr. Biffi is self-employed as a personal trainer and coach on
a continuous and stable manner in Germany which amounts to an economic activity
connected to his sporting pursuits.<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">[5]</a>
Therefore, AG Tanchev believes the analysis should be pursued under the freedom
of establishment provisions. For this view to be endorsed, it is essential that
Mr. Biffi’s economic activity is sufficiently connected to his sporting
endeavours. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In this context, AG Tanchev recalls the <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf;jsessionid=E4771F3C906A42F965526444635CB07C?text=&amp;docid=45229&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=lst&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=1909123"><i>Deliège</i><i>
</i>case</a> which concerned a
Judoka, who argued that a national sport governing body’s refusal to select her
for an international competition was a violation of her freedom to provide
services. The Court in that case had to determine whether she was engaged in an
economic activity in order for the fundamental freedom to apply. In doing so,
the Court unequivocally states that simply because a sport governing body
labels its athlete an amateur, it does not mean that they are automatically
disengaged from economic activity, and economic activities in the context of
free movement of services should not be interpreted restrictively.<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title="">[6]</a>
Therefore, the Court in the <i>Deliège </i>case focused on the
judoka’s sponsorships deals and grants to conclude that she was engaged in
economic activities.<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title="">[7]</a>
AG Tanchev, in examining the <i>Deliège </i>case’s relevance,
explains that this demonstrates EU law’s flexibility in finding a link between
sporting and economic activities, and that even if the DLV’s rules only have an
‘indirect impact’ on Mr. Biffi’s economic activities, it should fall within the
scope of the freedom of establishment.<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify"><i>4.2.</i><i>Restriction on
the Freedom of Establishment and Justifications</i><i></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The opinion then goes on to find that there has been a
restriction of Mr. Biffi’s freedom of establishment because the DLV rule puts
Mr. Biffi ‘at a disadvantage when compared with German nationals engaged in the
provision of athletic training services’ because he is unable ‘to make
reference to his achievements in national sporting championships in order to
attract business.’ Furthermore, he states that consumers are ‘more likely to be
drawn to an athletics coach advertising on-going excellence … in the national
athletics championships.’<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title="">[9]</a>
Given that the DLV rule is directly discriminatory, EU law only allows
justification under the express derogations enshrined in the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The DLV would have had
a larger window to defend their rules if they were indirectly discriminatory
since the CJEU accepts both express derogations and justifications which have
been developed by its own case law. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">AG Tanchev readily finds that the DLV’s rules fall under the
public policy derogation by aiming to ensure that the winner of the national
title has a ‘sufficiently strong link’ with the country organising the
championship and to ensure that the national selection of athletes for
international competitions is not disrupted. It could be argued that these aims
have been too easily advanced as public policy objectives. The CJEU has never
accepted the former as a derogation or a justification, and concerning the
latter, the CJEU has accepted objectives which ensure national representation
in international competitions only as justifications. Since justifications
developed by the CJEU generally are not applicable to cases of direct
discrimination, such as the present case, it can be said that the opinion
perhaps too quickly embraces these pursued aims as public policy objectives. This
being said, sport already enjoyed a special treatment in the past as the CJEU
has been open to consider justifications for directly discriminatory measures
in the <i>Bosman </i>case.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify"><i>4.3.</i><i>Is the DLV’s
measure proportionate?</i><i></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Assuming that these aims are accepted as express
derogations, the DLV measures must then pass proportionality requirements which
in EU law require a measure to be suitable for the pursued aim and necessary to
achieve those aims. In the sporting context, the CJEU has explained that in
order for a sporting rule to be proportionate it must be limited to its proper
objective and it must be inherent to the organization of the sport event<i>.</i><a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title="">[10]</a>
AG Tanchev affirms that the measure is disproportionate because the rule disallows
Mr. Biffi from competing for the national title and precludes classification in
such a competition when for many years he had been allowed to compete and be
classified as any other German athlete.<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title="">[11]</a>
Furthermore, given he had this pre-existing right, the DLV’s failure to take
any transitional measures or give sufficient notice of this change violates the
legitimate expectations of Mr. Biffi who exercised his free movement in
reliance of this established regime and infringes the general principle of acquired
rights.<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title="">[12]</a>
Thus, it can be inferred that in AG Tanchev’s view, the measure could have been
proportionate had there been sufficient transitional measures in place. Such a
broad interpretation of proportionality by including the non-national's right
to compete for the national title, would greatly restrict the options of a
sport governing body wanting to change a rule that could negatively affect the
participation of non-nationals in their national competitions. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">If this broad approach is not accepted, AG Tanchev contends
the measure is still disproportionate since the DLV’s rules potentially exclude
non-national participants from competing at all in the national championships.
Such a measure could only be legitimate in ‘unusual circumstances.’ In this
vein, the opinion suggests less restrictive rules which instead limit the
number of non-classified athletes.<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title="">[13]</a>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Other alternative models have been suggested which are much
more likely to pass the proportionality test. One commentator has suggested
that non-nationals should be allowed to compete in national championships while
perhaps only restricting their ability to actually win the title.<a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title="">[14]</a>
If applied to this case, this model would allow Mr. Biffi to participate with
classification in the national championships, but if he (or other non-national)
were to take the first place, the national title would be given to the highest
classified German athlete in the competition. Another model put forward in a
recent <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/sport/library/studies/study_equal_treatment_non_nationals_final_rpt_dec_2010_en.pdf">study</a> suggests that a non-national can only compete in the
national championship after having been resident or being member of a local
club for a certain period of time. All of these suggestions show that there are
a multitude of less restrictive ways to protect the organisation of national
championships and the selection process of national athletes for international
competitions. An outright ban on participation or only allowing participation
outside of classification is remarkably restrictive and has very little chance
of passing the necessity requirements under proportionality. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Overall, the argument that this case should be analysed from
the freedom of establishment perspective is rather convincing because the
economic dimension is clearly present. However, there is still a possibility
that the CJEU will follow the line of arguments brought by the applicants based
on EU citizenship rights addressed at the end of AG Tanchev’s opinion.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="justify"><i>4.4.</i><i>EU Citizenship
Rights </i><i></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">AG Tanchev begins by explaining that
even if non-discrimination on the basis of nationality deriving from EU
citizenship are applied, the result of the case should be the same because the
stated aims of the DLV simply do not meet the proportionality requirements.<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title="">[15]</a>&nbsp; However, the opinion goes on to firmly oppose
the application of EU citizenship rights in this context. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In its submissions, the Commission
had strongly endorsed a view that access to leisure activities should always
fall within the scope of EU citizenship rights. AG Tanchev disagrees with such
a wide-ranging interpretation because it would be a huge ‘constitutional step’
to give Article 21 TFEU horizontal direct effect, meaning a private party could
invoke this provision in a national court against another private party. He
maintains that this provision is meant to only have vertical direct effect,
where a private party may invoke this provision in a national court against the
state. He explains that extending horizontal direct effect to this rather
open-ended provision would have a capricious effect that would damage legal
certainty<u> </u>because Article 21 TFEU ‘comes into play in the broad and
unpredictable range of circumstances’ where applicants are ‘unable to show a
link between what is in issue and economic activities’ or ‘fall outside of EU
legislation concerning freedom of movement.’<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title="">[16]</a>
On the other hand, one could argue the very purpose of this Article is to
provide EU citizens with other means to dispute measures which harm their free
movement, and such a restricted interpretation would damage <i>l’effet utile</i> of this provision.<u>&nbsp; &nbsp;</u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">While it is probably the case that
Mr. Biffi’s circumstances fall within the scope of his free movement rights,
imagine if he did not have any economic interest, and instead of a coach and
personal trainer, he was an accountant or car mechanic. If AG Tanchev’s
approach were to be taken in such a case, Mr. Biffi would have absolutely no
recourse under EU law to challenge such a discriminatory rule. If Article 18
and 21 TFEU were to be interpreted so restrictively, private monopolistic
actors who exercise powers that resemble those of a state (such as many sport
governing bodies) could make the exercise of the European citizenship less
attractive by limiting the participation of non-nationals in certain leisure
activities. The Commission is right in taking a broad approach on this issue,
although in the end it found the DLV’s rule to be proportionate, especially
since Article 18 and 21 TFEU makes no express reservations against the
applicability of these provisions on private parties.<a href="#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title="">[17]</a>
A wide interpretation would completely fit the ‘conditional autonomy’ model in
which sport rules fall within the scope of EU law, and it is for the sport
governing bodies to explain how and why the rule is necessary or ‘inherent’ to the
conduct of sports. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" align="center">5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <u>Conclusion</u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">If the CJEU finds this case to fall
under the scope of the freedom of establishment, it is likely the DLV’s rules
will fail to be justified or crumble under the proportionality requirements.
Likewise, the outcome is likely to be the same in the improbable case that EU
citizenship rights are applied. However, it truly would be a ‘constitutional
step’, as AG Tanchev asserted, by greatly widening the possibility of using EU
citizenship rights to challenge nationality discrimination in even amateur and
leisure sport. Moreover, solidifying horizontal direct effect of the EU
citizenship rights would have an impact way beyond sport related cases.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Regardless, even if Mr. Biffi’s case
is examined from the freedom of establishment, it will be a momentous occasion
for the CJEU to further elucidate the boundaries of the application of EU law
to sport. In this respect, AG Tanchev’s opinion provides an excellent analysis
of the legal issues arising from the free movement perspective and picks up on
the most evident detail that all the parties in the case seemed to have glanced
over: Mr. Biffi has an economic interest which is tied to his sporting
activities. In the long run, the application of EU citizenship rights to sports
seems inevitable, but <i>TopFit e.V. Daniele Biffi</i> most likely does not
provide the CJEU with a golden opportunity to express itself on this matter.</p>
<p align="justify"><br clear="all">
</p><hr width="33%" size="1" align="justify">
<p id="ftn1" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> T.M.C. Asser Institute Report,
‘<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/sport/library/studies/study_equal_treatment_non_nationals_final_rpt_dec_2010_en.pdf">Study on the Equal Treatment
of Non-Nationals in Individual Sports Competitions</a>’ (2010).</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn2" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> Case 36-74 <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:61974CJ0036&amp;from=EN"><i>B.N.O. Walrave and L.J.N. Koch
v Association Union cycliste internationale, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Wielren
Unie and Federación Española Ciclismo</i></a><i> </i>[1974] ECR 1974 –01405; Case
C-415/93 <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:61993CJ0415&amp;from=EN"><i>Union royale belge des
sociétés de football association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman, Royal club liégeois
SA v Jean-Marc Bosman and others and Union des associations européennes de
football (UEFA) v Jean-Marc Bosman</i></a><i> </i>[1995] ECR I-04921.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn3" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title="">[3]</a> Stephen Weatherill, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/principles-and-practice-in-eu-sports-law-9780198793656?cc=be&amp;lang=en&amp;"><i>Principles and Practice in EU
Sports Law</i></a> (1<sup>st</sup> edn, Oxford University Press 2017) 71.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn4" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title="">[4]</a> Case C-22/18 <i>TopFit e.V.
Daniele Biffi v Deutscher Leichtathletikverband e.V.</i> [2019]
ECLI:EU:C:2019:181, Opinion of AG Tanchev, para 48.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn5" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title="">[5]</a> ibid para 55.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn6" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title="">[6]</a> Joined Cases C-51/96 and C-191/97 <i><a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf;jsessionid=E4771F3C906A42F965526444635CB07C?text=&amp;docid=45229&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=lst&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=1909123">Christelle
Deliège v Ligue francophone de judo et disciplines associées ASBL, Ligue belge
de judo ASBL, Union européenne de judo</a></i> [2000] ECR I-02549 para 46.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn7" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title="">[7]</a> ibid paras 51-53.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn8" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title="">[8]</a> <i>TopFit, </i>Opinion of AG Tanchev (n 4)
para 62.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn9" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title="">[9]</a> ibid para 70.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn10" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title="">[10]</a> <i>Walrave </i>(n
2) para 9; <i>Deliège </i>(n 6) para 64.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn11" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title="">[11]</a> <i>TopFit, </i>Opinion of AG Tanchev (n 4)
paras 80, 88.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn12" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title="">[12]</a> ibid para 83.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn13" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title="">[13]</a>
ibid paras 92-93.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn14" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title="">[14]</a> Weatherill (n 3) 203.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn15" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title="">[15]</a> <i>TopFit, </i>Opinion of AG Tanchev (n 4)
para 97.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn16" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title="">[16]</a>
ibid para 103.</p>
<p align="justify"></p>
<p id="ftn17" align="justify">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" align="justify"><a href="#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" title="">[17]</a>
ibid paras 37-40.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/can-european-citizens-participate-in-national-championships-an-analysis-of-ag-tanchev-s-opinion-in-topfit-e-v-daniele-biffi-v-deutscher-leichtathletikverband-e-v-by-thomas-terraz
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/can-european-citizens-participate-in-national-championships-an-analysis-of-ag-tanchev-s-opinion-in-topfit-e-v-daniele-biffi-v-deutscher-leichtathletikverband-e-v-by-thomas-terraz#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=957a89cd-4e6b-4d60-b990-e60c5210cd83Fri, 26 Apr 2019 11:04:00 +0200Antoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=957a89cd-4e6b-4d60-b990-e60c5210cd830http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=957a89cd-4e6b-4d60-b990-e60c5210cd83http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/can-european-citizens-participate-in-national-championships-an-analysis-of-ag-tanchev-s-opinion-in-topfit-e-v-daniele-biffi-v-deutscher-leichtathletikverband-e-v-by-thomas-terraz#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=957a89cd-4e6b-4d60-b990-e60c5210cd83International and European Sports Law – Monthly Report – February and March 2019. By Tomáš Grell
<p align="justify"><b>Editor's note:</b> This report compiles all relevant news, events and
materials on International and European Sports Law based on the daily coverage
provided on our twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/sportslaw_asser">@Sportslaw_asser.</a> You
are invited to complete this survey via the comments section below, feel free
to add links to important cases, documents and articles we might have
overlooked.
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>The Headlines</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i><u>The Court of Arbitration for Sport bans 12 Russian
track and field athletes</u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">On 1 February 2019,
the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_IAAF_RUSAF_athletics_cases_.pdf">communicated</a> that it had rendered another 12 decisions in the
seemingly endless saga concerning the state-sponsored doping programme in
Russia. These first-instance decisions of the CAS involve 12 Russian track and
field athletes who were all found guilty of anti-doping rule violations based on
the evidence underlying the reports published by professor Richard McLaren and
suspended from participating in sports competitions for periods ranging from
two to eight years. Arguably the most prominent name that appears on the list
of banned athletes is Ivan Ukhov, the 32-year-old high jump champion from the
2012 Olympic Games in London.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The case was
brought by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) that
sought to convince the arbitrators that the athletes in question had
participated in and/or benefited from anabolic steroid doping programmes and
benefited from specific protective methods (washout schedules) in the period
between the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the 2013 IAAF World Championships
in Moscow. The CAS was acting in lieau of the Russian Athletics Federation that
remains suspended and thus unable to conduct any disciplinary procedures. The
athletes have had the opportunity to appeal the decisions to the CAS Appeals
Arbitration Division.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i><u>Federal Cartel Office in Germany finds Rule 40 of the
Olympic Charter disproportionately restrictive</u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">At the end of
February, the German competition authority Bundeskartellamt <a href="https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2019/27_02_2019_DOSB_IOC.html?nn=3591568">announced</a> that it had entered into a commitment agreement with
the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) in which these two organisations had agreed to considerably
enhance advertising opportunities for German athletes and their sponsors during
the Olympic Games. The respective agreement is a direct consequence of the
Bundeskartellamt’s finding that the IOC and the DOSB had abused their dominant
position on the market for organising and marketing the Olympic Games by
demanding that the athletes refrain from promoting their own sponsors while the
Games are ongoing, as well as shortly before and after the Games. This
restriction stems from Rule 40(3) of the Olympic Charter under which no
competitor who participates in the Games may allow his person, name, picture or
sports performances to be used for advertising purposes, unless the IOC
Executive Board allows him/her to do so.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">As part of
fulfilling its obligations under the commitment agreement, the DOSB has relaxed
its guidelines on promotional activities of German athletes during the Olympic
Games. For its part, the IOC has declared that these new guidelines would take
precedence over Rule 40(3) of the Olympic Charter. However, it still remains to
be seen whether in response to the conclusions of the German competition
authority the IOC will finally change the contentious rule.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i><u>The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights
refuses to pronounce itself on Claudia Pechstein’s case</u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Claudia Pechstein’s
challenge against the CAS brought before the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR) has not yielded the desired result for the German athlete. On 5
February 2019, a Panel of the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_Pechstein_ECHR_GC.pdf">decided</a> that the Grand Chamber would not entertain the case. This
means that the judgment handed down by the 3<sup>rd</sup> Chamber of the ECtHR
on 2 October 2018, in which the ECtHR confirmed that except for the lack of
publicity of oral hearings the procedures of the CAS are compatible with the
right to a fair trial under Article 6(1) of the European Convention on Human
Rights, has now become final and binding. However, the protracted legal battle
between the five-time Olympic champion in speed skating and the CAS is not over
yet since there is one more challenge against the CAS and its independence
pending before the German Constitutional Court.&nbsp; <br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Sports Law Related Decisions</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>&nbsp;European
Court of Human Rights – <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{&quot;appno&quot;:[&quot;20373/17&quot;],&quot;itemid&quot;:[&quot;001-189769&quot;]}">Decision on
the application of Josip Šimunić against Croatia</a></li><li>European Court of Justice – <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=4B3F49AA4B833996675BA4CF1B88F1EE?text=&amp;docid=211444&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=req&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=2571647#Footref97">Opinion of
Advocate General Tandev in the case C-22/18 TopFit e.V. and Daniele Biffi v.
Deutscher Leichtathletikverband e.V.</a></li><li>General
Court of the European Union – <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=211043&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=ES&amp;mode=req&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=1918783">Judgment of
the General Court in the case T-679/16 Athletic Club v. European Commission</a></li><li>General
Court of the European Union – <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=211042&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=ES&amp;mode=lst&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=1918235">Judgment of
the General Court in the case T-865/16 Fútbol Club Barcelona v. European
Commission</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Official Documents and Press Releases</b>&nbsp;
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>CAS</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>CAS – <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_5769.pdf">Decision in
the arbitration procedure between Worawi Makudi and FIFA: Sanction reduced</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_5957.pdf">Galatasaray
v. UEFA – The Court of Arbitration for Sport reinstates the decision rendered
by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body Investigatory Chamber and the resulting
settlement agreement</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_Semenya_ASA_IAAF_closing.pdf">The CAS
hearing in the arbitration procedure involving Caster Semenya, Athletics South
Africa (ASA) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
has concluded</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_Semenya_ASA_IAAF_21.03.pdf">Caster
Semenya, Athletics South Africa (ASA) and International Association of
Athletics Federation (IAAF): Planning update</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_5654_5655.pdf">The Court of
Arbitration for Sport amends the periods of ineligibility of Ukrainian
sprinters Olha Zemliak and Olesia Povh</a></li><li>CAS – <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_IAAF_RUSAF_athletics_cases_.pdf">The Court of
Arbitration for Sport issues decisions in 12 first-instance disciplinary
procedures concerning Russian track and field athletes</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_5937_decision.pdf">The Court of
Arbitration for Sport upholds the appeal filed by Paris Saint-Germain</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_6089.pdf">The Court of
Arbitration for Sport upholds the appeal of Stefan Luitz</a></li><li>CAS –<b> </b><a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Media_Release_Pechstein_ECHR_GC.pdf">The European
Court of Human Rights rejects the request of Claudia Pechstein to refer her
case to the Grand Chamber of ECtHR</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>FIFA</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/chelsea-fc-the-football-association-sanctioned-for-international-transfers-of-mi">Chelsea FC,
The Football Association sanctioned for international transfers of minors</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/fifa-and-qatar-announce-joint-venture-to-deliver-2022-fifa-world-cuptm">FIFA and
Qatar announce joint venture to deliver 2022 FIFA World Cup</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/fifa-caf-and-african-union-sign-historic-memorandum-of-understanding-on-educatio">FIFA, CAF and
African Union sign historic memorandum of understanding on education,
anti-corruption and safety</a>`</li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/fifa-council-votes-for-the-introduction-of-a-revamped-fifa-club-world-cup">FIFA Council
votes for the introduction of a revamped FIFA Club World Cup</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2019/m=2/news=fifa-s-big-5-transfer-window-analysis-clubs-spent-usd-642-8-million-on-internati.html">FIFA’s big 5
transfer window analysis: $642.8m January outlay on international transfers</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/infantino-and-putin-discuss-world-cup-legacy-and-continued-support-for-russian-f">Infantino and
Putin discuss World Cup legacy and continued support for Russian football</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/joint-statement-from-fifa-and-conmebol-regarding-colombia">Joint
statement from FIFA and CONMEBOL regarding Colombia</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2019/m=2/news=portuguese-club-fc-porto-sanctioned-under-third-party-influence-rules.html">Portuguese
club FC Porto sanctioned under third-party influence rules</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>IOC</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>IOC – <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/independent-research-conducted-on-behalf-of-the-ioc-demonstrates-global-strength-of-the-olympic-values">Independent
research conducted on behalf of the IOC demonstrates global strength of the
Olympic values</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-evaluation-commission-attests-to-sustainability-of-stockholm-are-project-in-line-with-olympic-agenda-2020">IOC
Evaluation Commission attests to sustainability of Stockholm-Are project in
line with Olympic Agenda 2020</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sanctions-three-athletes-for-failing-anti-doping-tests-at-london-2012">IOC sanctions
three athletes for failing anti-doping tests at London 2012</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-supported-guide-outlines-how-sustainable-venues-can-help-conserve-nature">IOC-supported
guide outlines how sustainable venues can help conserve nature</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/levelling-the-field-a-snapshot-of-how-the-ioc-is-advancing-gender-equality-in-sport">Levelling the
field: A snapshot of how the IOC is advancing gender equality in sport</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/tokyo-2020-reveals-progress-on-sustainability">Tokyo 2020
reveals progress on sustainability</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>UEFA</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>UEFA – <a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediaservices/mediareleases/newsid=2590728.html">Aleksander
Čeferin re-elected UEFA President until 2023</a></li><li>UEFA – <a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/protecting-the-game/club-licensing-and-financial-fair-play/news/newsid=2594640.html">Investigatory
Chamber opens investigation into Manchester City</a></li><li>UEFA – <a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediaservices/mediareleases/newsid=2590467.html">UEFA and
European Club Association sign memorandum of understanding</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>WADA</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>WADA – <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-02/wada-announces-self-suspension-of-the-helsinki-laboratory">WADA announces
self-suspension of the Helsinki laboratory</a></li><li>WADA – <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-02/wada-declares-the-democratic-peoples-republic-of-korea-anti-doping-committee-non">WADA declares
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Anti-Doping Committee non-compliant
with World Anti-Doping Code</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-02/wada-publishes-independent-observer-team-report-from-2018-asian-games">WADA
publishes Independent Observer Team report from 2018 Asian Games</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-03/wada-removes-gymnastics-from-compliance-watchlist">WADA removes
gymnastics from compliance watchlist</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-02/wada-removes-nigeria-from-world-anti-doping-code-non-compliant-list">WADA removes
Nigeria from World Anti-Doping Code non-compliant list</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-02/wada-statement-on-police-raids-in-austria-and-germany">WADA
statement on police raids in Austria and Germany</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-03/wada-update-on-progress-regarding-moscow-laboratory-data">WADA update
on progress regarding Moscow Laboratory data</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-02/wada-welcomes-latest-court-of-arbitration-for-sport-decisions">WADA welcomes
latest Court of Arbitration for Sport decisions</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-03/world-anti-doping-code-and-international-standards-review-the-main-focus-at-2019">World
Anti-Doping Code and International Standards review the main focus at 2019 WADA
Annual Symposium</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-03/wada-athlete-committee-publishes-2019-symposium-athlete-session-summary">WADA Athlete
Committee publishes 2019 Symposium Athlete Session summary</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Athletics
Integrity Unit – <a href="https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/downloads/pdfs/knowledge-centre/en/AIU-Press-Release-CAS-decisions-on-the-McLaren-Cases.pdf">Athletics
Integrity Unit welcomes CAS decision to sanction 12 Russian athletes based on
the evidence underlying the McLaren reports</a></li><li>Bundeskartellamt
– <a href="https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/EN/Pressemitteilungen/2019/27_02_2019_DOSB_IOC.html">German
athletes and their sponsors obtain further advertising opportunities during the
Olympic Games following Bundeskartellamt action – IOC and DOSB undertake to
change the advertising guidelines</a></li><li>European
Leagues –<b> </b><a href="https://europeanleagues.com/wp-content/uploads/Philippa-Lombardi-Accounting-of-Football-Players-and-FFP.pdf">Accounting
for football players and financial fair play</a></li><li>General
Court of the European Union –<b> </b><a href="https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2019-02/cp190017en.pdf">The General
Court annuls the Commission’s decision classifying the tax regime of four
Spanish professional football clubs as State aid</a></li><li>International
Paralympic Committee –<b> </b><a href="https://www.paralympic.org/news/ipc-lift-russia-suspension">IPC to lift
Russia suspension</a></li><li>Tennis Integrity Unit – <a href="http://www.tennisintegrityunit.com/media-releases/david-norfeldt-suspended-and-fined-betting-tennis">David
Nordfeldt suspended and fined for betting on tennis</a></li><li>Tennis Integrity Unit – <a href="http://www.tennisintegrityunit.com/media-releases/mauricio-alvarez-guzman-banned-life-tennis-match-fixing-and-associated-corruption-offences">Mauricio
Alvarez-Guzman banned for life for tennis match-fixing and associated
corruption offences</a></li><li>T.M.C. Asser Institute – <a href="https://www.asser.nl/about-the-institute/asser-today/asser-takes-part-in-a-research-project-on-eu-sports-diplomacy/">Asser takes
part in a research project on EU sports diplomacy</a></li><li>United
Nations Human Rights Council –<b>
</b><a href="https://ilga.org/downloads/Elimination_of_discrimination_against_women_and_girls_in_sport.pdf">Resolution on
elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sport</a></li><li>USADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.usada.org/nado-leaders-call-to-reform-antidoping-system/">International
anti-doping leaders call on watershed opportunity to reform anti-doping system</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="justify"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>In the news</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Doping</i></p><p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Associated
Press <a href="https://apnews.com/0c0eb24cac304da480dd6112ac051faf">9 people
arrested in doping raids in Austria and Germany</a></li></ul><ul><li>BBC
Sport <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/47095072">Doping bans
for 12 Russian athletes including 2012 Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov</a></li><li>BBC
Sport <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/47524315">Russia doping
scandal: IAAF upholds ban on Russian athletes until further notice</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/06/team-sky-doctor-richard-freeman-medical-tribunal-delayed">Geraint
Thomas says cycling now ‘one of the cleanest sports around’</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/08/russia-paralympic-doping-ban-lifted-ipc">Russia’s
Paralympic doping ban lifted after IPC praises ‘significant reforms’</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/13/team-gb-cyclist-global-athlete-movement-callum-skinner-wada">Team GB
cyclist backs athletes’ movement after frustration with WADA</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077004/france-issue-arrest-warrants-for-former-iaaf-treasurer-and-senior-coach-of-russian-athletics-team">France issue
arrest warrants for former IAAF treasurer and senior coach of Russian athletics
team</a></li><li>Duncan
Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1075016/olympic-and-world-champions-among-russian-athletes-banned-after-cas-ruling">Olympic and
world champions among Russian athletes banned after CAS ruling</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1075054/russian-athletics-federation-president-admits-he-expected-athletes-to-be-banned-by-cas-based-on-rodchenkov-evidence">Russian
Athletics Federation President admits he expected athletes to be banned by CAS
based on Rodchenkov evidence</a></li><li>Dan
Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076436/austrian-skier-admits-to-recent-doping-as-drugs-investigation-continues-reports-claim">Austrian
skier admits to recent doping as drugs investigation continues, reports claim</a></li><li>Dan
Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076830/cas-overturns-disqualification-of-alpine-skiing-world-cup-winner-after-oxygen-tank-row">CAS overturns
disqualification of Alpine Skiing World Cup winner after oxygen tank row</a></li><li>Dan
Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076044/council-of-europe-approve-banka-as-wada-president-candidate">Council of
Europe approve Bańka as WADA President candidate</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076810/international-paralympic-committee-confirm-conditional-reinstatement-of-russia">International
Paralympic Committee confirm conditional reinstatement of Russia</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077021/twenty-one-athletes-suspected-of-being-part-of-international-doping-ring-following-seefeld-raid">Twenty-one
athletes suspected of being part of international doping ring following Seefeld
raid</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077392/ukrainian-sprinters-fail-in-bid-to-get-drugs-bans-overturned-at-cas">Ukrainian
sprinters fail in bid to get drugs bans overturned at CAS</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076447/wada-finish-upload-of-moscow-laboratory-data-and-prepare-to-check-for-authenticity">WADA finish
upload of Moscow Laboratory data and prepare to check for authenticity</a></li><li>Sportschau <a href="https://www.sportschau.de/doping/Doping-Razzia-Hintergruende-ENG-100.html">Bloody
Business – new details emerge after doping raid</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Football</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Ed
Aarons <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/05/rui-pinto-criminal-or-whistleblower-the-story-of-the-man-behind-football-leaks">Criminal or
whistleblower? The story of the man behind Football Leaks</a></li><li>Ed
Aarons <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/18/manchester-city-chinese-club-sichuan-jiuniun-third-tier-portfolio-cfg">Manchester
City set to add third-tier Chinese club to global portfolio</a></li><li>David
Conn <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/07/aleksander-ceferin-uefa-european-super-league">Re-elected
Čeferin stresses UEFA opposition to European Super League</a></li><li>David Conn <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/07/manchester-city-uefa-investigation-ffp-champions-league-ban">UEFA launches
formal investigation into Manchester City’s FFP conduct</a></li><li>Helen
Davidson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/12/hes-free-but-whos-to-blame-for-hakeem-al-araibis-ordeal">He’s free,
but who’s to blame for Hakeem al-Araibi’s ordeal?</a></li><li>Helen
Davidson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/18/human-error-and-outdated-it-led-to-hakeem-al-araibis-detention-says-border-force-official">Human error
and outdated IT led to Hakeem al-Araibi’s detention, says border force official</a></li><li>Helen
Davidson and Hannah Ellis-Petersen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/thailand-to-free-bahraini-footballer-hakeem-al-araibi">Hakeem
al-Araibi on flight to Australia after release in Thailand</a></li><li>Helen
Davidson and Hannah Ellis-Petersen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/14/hakeem-al-araibi-power-politics-football-and-the-will-of-the-people">Hakeem
al-Araibi: Power, politics, football and the will of the people</a></li><li>Rob Harris <a href="https://apnews.com/4956ce185f90438e952ed187a71bab2b?utm_source=Twitter&amp;utm_medium=AP_Sports&amp;utm_campaign=SocialFlow">FIFA explores
Kuwait and Oman as 2022 World Cup co-hosts</a></li><li>David
Hytner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/22/chelsea-transfer-ban-two-windows-fifa-foreign-players-under-age-18">Chelsea to
appeal after being hit with transfer ban for two windows by FIFA</a></li><li>David Hytner and Dominic Fifield <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/08/chelsea-astonished-after-fifa-reject-clubs-request-to-freeze-transfer-ban">Chelsea
‘astonished’ after FIFA rejects club’s request to freeze transfer ban</a></li><li>Mike
Hytner and Helen Davidson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/06/hakeem-al-araibi-ffa-cancels-team-trip-to-thailand-in-first-sporting-sanctions">Hakeem
al-Araibi: FFA cancels team trip to Thailand in support of refugee footballer</a></li><li>Sean Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/10/qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022-damian-collins">FIFA facing
urgent calls to investigate Qatar World Cup bid claims</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1075434/court-of-arbitration-for-sport-lift-fifa-ban-on-makudi-after-successful-appeal">Court of
Arbitration for Sport lift FIFA ban on Makudi after successful appeal</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076933/former-socceroos-captain-claims-australia-decision-to-support-shaikh-salman-afc-election-campaign-is-sickening">Former
Socceroos captain claims Australia decision to support Sheikh Salman AFC election
campaign is ‘sickening’</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077351/sheikh-salman-to-be-re-elected-unopposed-as-president-of-afc-after-last-opponent-withdraws">Sheikh Salman
to be re-elected unopposed as President of AFC after last opponent withdraws</a></li><li>James
Montague and Tariq Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/sports/world-cup-2022-qatar.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=3&amp;pgtype=collection">Ahead of
Qatar World Cup, a Gulf feud plays out in the shadows</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076234/former-fifa-senior-vice-president-chung-handed-six-and-a-half-year-ban">Former FIFA
senior vice president Chung handed six-and-a-half year ban</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077250/uefa-charge-montenegro-over-alleged-racist-abuse-against-england">UEFA charge
Montenegro over alleged racist abuse against England</a></li><li>Tariq Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/sports/bein-media-qatar-saudi-arabia.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=10&amp;pgtype=collection">Feud over
soccer piracy deepens as A.F.C. ends beIN sports contract</a></li><li>Tariq Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/sports/fifa-2022-world-cup.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=9&amp;pgtype=collection">FIFA approves
plan for new Club World Cup, to Europe’s dismay</a> </li><li>Tariq Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/sports/hacker-football-leaks-soccer.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=3&amp;pgtype=collection">Hacker who
leaked soccer’s secrets loses extradition hearing</a></li><li>Press Association <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/mar/25/cardiff-tell-fifa-emiliano-sala-transfer-invalid-nantes">Cardiff to
tell FIFA that Emiliano Sala’s transfer from Nantes was invalid</a></li><li>Barney
Ronay <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/15/sportswashing-europes-biggest-clubs-champions-league-owners-sponsors-uefa">Sportswashing
and the tangled web of Europe’s biggest clubs</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Graham
Dunbar <a href="https://apnews.com/1ce909187c8a45a7af1b305fe789ba7f">Victory for Olympic
athletes in Germany to promote sponsors</a></li><li>EurekAlert!
<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/uoca-tlf021219.php">Testosterone
limits for female athletes based on ‘flawed’ research</a></li><li>Bryan
Armen Graham <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/15/colin-kaepernick-reaches-settlement-with-nfl-over-kneeling-protest-fallout">Colin
Kaepernick reaches settlement with NFL over kneeling protest fallout</a></li><li>Saja Hindi <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/15/us-olympic-committee-larry-nassar-lawsuit-colorado/amp/?utm_content=tw-denverpost&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;__twitter_impression=true">51 women,
girls sue U.S. Olympic Committee in federal court in Colorado for failing to
stop sexual abuse by Larry Nasar</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seaningle">Caster
Semenya: IAAF denies it wants to classify athlete as biological male</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/feb/14/caster-semenya-unquestionably-a-woman-lawyers">Caster
Semenya is ‘unquestionably a woman’ say her lawyers</a></li><li>Sean Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/21/caster-semenya-testosterone-case-verdict-postponed-end-april-athletics">Caster
Semenya case verdict postponed until end of April</a></li><li>Sean Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/06/f1-accused-blind-eye-grand-prix-bahrain-najah-yousif-jailed">F1 accused of
‘turning blind eye’ over activist’s jailing in Bahrain</a></li><li>Sean Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/03/sports-stars-weigh-in-on-row-over-transgender-athletes">Sports stars
weigh in on row over transgender athletes</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076846/american-hijab-pioneer-slams-french-politicians-campaigning-against-it-in-paris-2024-build-up">American
hijab pioneer slams French politicians campaigning against it in Paris 2024
build-up</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1076258/row-over-sale-of-running-hijab-highlights-divisive-nature-of-debate-in-paris-2024-build-up">Row over sale
of running hijab highlights divisive nature of debate in Paris 2024 build-up</a></li><li>Duncan Mackay <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077272/takeda-officially-no-longer-an-ioc-member-after-resignation-accepted">Takeda
officially no longer an IOC member after resignation accepted</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077075/government-commissioned-survey-predicts-financial-boost-for-italy-if-country-wins-race-for-2026-winter-olympics">Government
commissioned survey predicts financial boost for Italy if country wins race for
2026 Winter Olympics</a></li><li>Dan Palmer <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1077289/semenya-accuses-coe-of-reopening-old-wounds-as-war-of-words-intensifies">Semenya
accuses Coe of ‘reopening old wounds’ as war of words intensifies</a></li></ul><p></p><p align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Academic Materials</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>International Sports Law Journal</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Antonio
Di Marco <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-019-00144-9">The
International Governance of Sporting Organisations: International Convergences
on an Idea of Democracy</a></li><li>Johan
Lindholm <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-019-00145-8">The
Netflix-ication of Sports Broadcasting</a></li><li>Roger
Pielke Jr., Ross Tucker and Erik Boye <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-019-00143-w">Scientific
Integrity and IAAF Testosterone Regulations</a></li><li>Hubert Radke <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-019-00146-7">Basketball
Arbitral Tribunal (BAT) as a ‘Lawmaker’: The Creation of Global Standards of
Basketball Contracts Through Consistent Arbitral Decision-Making</a>&nbsp; </li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Simon
Boyes <a href="https://www.entsportslawjournal.com/articles/10.16997/eslj.225/">Ken Foster
and the Genesis of Sports Law: A Personal Perspective</a></li><li>&nbsp;Ken
Foster <a href="https://www.entsportslawjournal.com/articles/10.16997/eslj.228/">Global Sports
Law Revisited</a></li><li>Steve
Greenfield, Mark James and Guy Osborn <a href="https://www.entsportslawjournal.com/articles/10.16997/eslj.226/">Ken Foster
and the Development of UK Sports Law: A Reflective Interview</a></li><li>Harvard
Journal of Sports &amp; Entertainment Law <a href="http://harvardjsel.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/hls_10-1.pdf">Volume 10,
Issue 1</a>`</li><li>Ivan Waddington and Verner Moller <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19406940.2019.1581645">WADA At
Twenty: Old Problems and Old Thinking?</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Blog</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Law in Sport</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Carlos
Carnero and Eduardo Montejo <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/why-spain-s-approach-to-taxing-image-rights-and-agency-income-is-discouraging-overseas-footballers">Why Spain’s
approach to taxing image rights and agency income is discouraging overseas
footballers</a></li><li>Alex
Haffner and Thomas Edwards <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/sailing-into-choppy-waters-world-sailing-under-the-competition-law-microscope">Sailing into
choppy waters? World Sailing under the competition law microscope</a></li><li>Wouter Janssens <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/the-basketball-arbitral-tribunal-s-policy-on-publishing-written-reasons-does-it-strike-the-right-balance-between-speed-legal-certainty">The
Basketball Arbitral Tribunal’s policy on publishing written reasons – does it
strike the right balance between speed and legal certainty?</a></li><li>Douglas
N. Masters <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/how-technology-is-improving-the-fan-experience-and-creating-legal-challenges-for-clubs-and-leagues">How
technology is improving the fan experience – and creating legal challenges for
clubs and leagues</a></li><li>Elio
Andrea Palmitessa <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/managing-athletes-image-rights-in-italy-key-considerations-for-structuring-and-accounting-under-the-new-tax-regime">Managing
athlete image rights in Italy: Key considerations for structuring and accounting
under the new tax regime</a></li><li>Katarina Pijetlovic <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/fina-s-decision-to-allow-market-access-to-rival-competitions-a-turn-of-the-tide-in-professional-swimming">FINA’s
decision to allow market access to rival competitions – a turn of the tide in
professional swimming</a></li><li>Celia Rooney <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/a-cautionary-tale-for-arbitrators-in-sports-law-disputes-lessons-from-fleetwood-wanderers-v-afc-fylde">A cautionary
tale for arbitrators in sports law disputes – lessons from Fleetwood Wanderers
v AFC Fylde</a></li><li>Tom Rudkin <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/litigation-privilege-hammered-key-points-for-sports-organisations-on-the-scope-of-litigation-privilege-from-the-west-ham-stadium-case">Litigation
privilege hammered? Key points for sports organisations on the scope of
litigation privilege from the West Ham Stadium case</a></li><li>Rustam Sethna <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/a-case-for-ending-football-s-mid-season-transfer-window">A case for
ending football’s mid-season transfer window</a></li><li>Aaron Swerdlow <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/in-stadium-real-time-sports-betting-in-the-united-states-an-overview-of-legal-issues-facing-clubs-and-leagues">In-stadium,
real-time sports betting in the United States – an overview of legal issues
facing clubs and leagues</a></li><li>Leigh
Thompson <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/an-assessment-of-the-council-of-europe-s-recommendations-on-the-promotion-of-good-governance-in-sport">An assessment
of the Council of Europe’s recommendations on the promotion of good governance
in sport</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Hakeem
al-Araibi <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/opinion/running-from-bahrains-dark-side.html">Running from
Bahrain’s dark side</a></li><li>Andy
Brown <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/caster-semenyas-challenge-to-the-dsd-regulations-its-complicated/">Caster
Semenya’s challenge to the DSD regulations: It’s complicated…</a></li><li>Rafael
Buschmann, Nicola Naber and Michael Wulzinger <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/football-leaks-possible-interest-conflict-dogs-probe-a-1255199.html">Possible
conflict of interest dogs Football Leaks probe</a></li><li>Paul Dimeo and Verner Moller <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/the-horror-of-the-scapegoat/">The horror of
the scapegoat</a></li><li>Kelsey Erickson and Susan Backhouse <a href="http://theconversation.com/whistleblowing-athletes-shouldnt-have-to-choose-between-their-careers-and-the-truth-112349?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1552907335">Whistleblowing
– Athletes shouldn’t have to choose between their careers and the truth</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/feb/18/caster-semenya-testosterone-levels-female-sport-court">Court has
Semenya’s career in its hands – and decision could affect all of sport</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/feb/04/football-concussion-diagnosis-sport-technology">Football
needs to get house in order over concussion, and it is not alone</a></li><li>Katrina Karkazis <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/06/testosterone-biological-sex-sports-bodies?CMP=share_btn_tw">Stop talking
about testosterone – there’s no such thing as a ‘true sex’</a></li><li>Alex Kay-Jelski <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6e283e6-50a5-11e9-ab3c-aad12815c817">There is no
evidence of a crusade to obliterate women’s sport</a></li><li>Alex Kelham <a href="http://adlaw.lewissilkin.net/post/102fg53/german-olympians-win-relaxation-of-marketing-rules">German
Olympians win relaxation of marketing rules</a></li><li>Despina
Mavromati <a href="http://sportlegis.com/2019/02/28/no-surprises-the-first-ioc-appeal-against-a-cas-award-cas-2017-a-5379-dismissed-by-the-swiss-federal-tribunal/">No surprises
– The first IOC appeal against a CAS award (CAS 2017/A/5379) dismissed by the
Swiss Federal Tribunal</a></li><li>Ann Peel <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-debate-in-sports-over-the-definition-of-womanhood-is-paternalistic/">The debate in
sports over the definition of womanhood is paternalistic – and hypocritical</a></li><li>Najah Yusuf <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/mar/27/najah-yusuf-prison-f1-bahrain-grand-prix?CMP=twt_gu">Every moment
I spend in prison in Bahrain stains the reputation of F1</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Upcoming Events</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>26-27
April – <a href="https://www.altius.com/events/463/football-finance-and-the-law">Football,
Finance and the Law</a>,
Lille, France</li><li>8 May –
<a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-fifa-and-human-rights-impacts-policies-responsibilities-deadline-30-january">FIFA and
Human Rights: Impacts, Policies and Responsibilities</a>, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands</li><li>16-18
May – <a href="https://www.sportslaw.org/conferences/2019conf/awards/call-for-academic-papers.cfm">45<sup>th</sup>
Annual Sports Lawyers Association Conference</a>, JW Marriott Desert Ridge, Phoenix, USA</li><li>22-23
May – <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/sports-law-events/conference/69-footy-pap2019">Football Law
2019: Player Transfers, Agents, Politics and the Business of Football</a>, London, UK</li><li>13-14
June – <a href="https://www.era.int/cgi-bin/cms?_SID=7c7f4606f6f45f815701826d17bdc2cb6941e9de00631756130398&amp;_sprache=en&amp;_bereich=artikel&amp;_aktion=detail&amp;idartikel=128553">EU Law in
Sport: Latest Trends</a>,
Brussels, Belgium</li><li>27-28
June – <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wl04evr7jwnc5c/2019_Conference_Call_for_papers.pdf?dl=0">14<sup>th</sup>
Sport&amp;EU Annual Conference</a>, Valleta, Malta</li><li>30 June
-14 July – <a href="http://summer.society.cz/en/">CLS Summer
School 2019: Global Law of Sport</a>, Patejdlova Bouda, Giant Mountains, Czech Republic</li><li>12-13
September – <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/annual-conference">Understand
the Rules of the Game 2019: LawInSport Annual Conference</a>, London, UK</li><li>13-16
October – <a href="https://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2019/0555_call-for-papers-play-the-game-2019/">Play the Game
2019: Athlete Power on the Rise</a>, Colorado Springs, USA</li><li>24-25
October – <a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-third-annual-international-sports-law-conference-of-the-international-sports-law-journal-24-and-25-october-2019-asser-institute">Third Annual
International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal</a>, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands</li></ul><p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/international-and-european-sports-law-monthly-report-february-and-march-2019-by-tomas-grell
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/international-and-european-sports-law-monthly-report-february-and-march-2019-by-tomas-grell#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=6ef25ce7-c190-48bb-9d9a-0c07866125bfTue, 23 Apr 2019 22:04:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law MaterialAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=6ef25ce7-c190-48bb-9d9a-0c07866125bf0http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=6ef25ce7-c190-48bb-9d9a-0c07866125bfhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/international-and-european-sports-law-monthly-report-february-and-march-2019-by-tomas-grell#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=6ef25ce7-c190-48bb-9d9a-0c07866125bfNew Event! FIFA and Human Rights: Impacts, Policies, Responsibilities - 8 May 2019 - Asser Institute<section class="event-text-container col-xxs-12 col-xs-12">
<p align="justify">In the past few years, FIFA underwent intense public
scrutiny for human rights violations surrounding the organisation of the
World Cup 2018 in Russia and 2022 in Qatar. This led to a
reform process at FIFA, which involved a number of policy changes, such
as:</p>
<p align="justify"></p><p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Embracing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;</li><li>The inclusion of human rights in the FIFA Statutes;</li><li>Adopting new bidding rules including human rights requirements;</li><li>And introducing a Human Rights Advisory Board.</li></ul><p></p>
<p align="justify">To take stock of these changes, the Asser Institute and the
<a href="https://www.asser.nl/nnhrr">Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research</a> (NNHRR), are organising a
conference on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA) and human rights, which will take place at the Asser Institute in
The Hague on 8 May 2019.</p>
<p align="justify">This one-day conference aims to take a deeper look at FIFA’s
impacts on human rights and critically investigate the measures it has
adopted to deal with them. Finally, we will also address FIFA’s
potential legal responsibilities under a variety of human rights
laws/instruments.</p><p align="justify"><br></p>
<p align="center"><strong>Preliminary Programme</strong></p>
<p align="justify">9:00 Registration &amp; Coffee<br></p><p align="justify">9:45 Welcome by Antoine Duval (Asser Institute) &amp; Daniela Heerdt (Tilburg University)<br></p><p align="justify">10:00 <b>Opening Remarks by Andreas Graf</b> (Human Rights Officer, FIFA)<br></p><p align="justify">10:30 <b>Panel 1: FIFA &amp; Human Rights: Impacts</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Zoher Shabbir (University of York) – The correlation between forced evictions and developing nations hosting the FIFA World Cup </li><li>Roman Kiselyov (European Human Rights Advocacy Centre) - FIFA World Cup as a Pretext for a Crackdown on Human Rights</li><li>Eleanor Drywood (Liverpool University) - FIFA and children’s rights: theory, methodology and practice&nbsp;</li></ul><p></p>
<p align="justify">12:00 Lunch<br></p><p align="justify">13:00 <b>Panel 2: FIFA &amp; Human Rights: Policies</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Lisa Schöddert &amp; Bodo Bützler (University of Cologne) – FIFA’s eigen-constitutionalisation and its limits</li><li>Gigi Alford (World Players Association) - Power
Play: FIFA’s voluntary human rights playbook does not diminish
Switzerland’s state power to protect against corporate harms</li><li>Brendan Schwab (World Players Association) &amp; Craig Foster - FIFA, human rights and the threatened refoulement of Hakeem Al Araibi&nbsp;</li></ul><p></p>
<p align="justify">14:30 Break<br></p><p align="justify">15:00 <b>Panel 3: FIFA &amp; Human Rights: Responsibilities</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Daniel
Rietiker (ECtHR and University of Lausanne) - The European Court of
Human Rights and Football: Current Issues and Potential</li><li>Jan Lukomski
(Łukomski Niklewicz law firm) - FIFA and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights&nbsp;: Obligations, duties and remedies
regarding the labour rights&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;protected under the ICESCR</li><li>Raquel
Regueiro Dubra (Complutense University of Madrid) - Shared international
responsibility for human rights violations in global events. The case
of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.</li><li>Wojciech
Lewandowski (Polish Academy of Sciences/University of Warsaw) - Is Bauer
the new Bosman? – The implications of the newest CJEU jurisprudence for
FIFA and other sport governing bodies</li></ul><p></p><p align="justify"></p>
<p align="justify">17:00 <b>Closing Remarks by Mary Harvey</b> (Chief Executive, Centre for Sports and Human Rights)<br></p><p align="justify"><br></p><p align="justify"><b>More information and <u>registration</u> at <a href="https://www.asser.nl/education-events/events/?id=3064">https://www.asser.nl/education-events/events/?id=3064</a></b></p></section>http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/new-event-fifa-and-human-rights-impacts-policies-responsibilities-8-may-2019
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/new-event-fifa-and-human-rights-impacts-policies-responsibilities-8-may-2019#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=adaf1dfa-06c3-45e4-a3eb-316bdd5235a0Fri, 05 Apr 2019 11:04:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law EventsAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=adaf1dfa-06c3-45e4-a3eb-316bdd5235a00http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=adaf1dfa-06c3-45e4-a3eb-316bdd5235a0http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/new-event-fifa-and-human-rights-impacts-policies-responsibilities-8-may-2019#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=adaf1dfa-06c3-45e4-a3eb-316bdd5235a0International and European Sports Law – Monthly Report – January 2019 - By Tomáš Grell
<p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;<b>Editor's note:</b> This report compiles all relevant news, events and
materials on International and European Sports Law based on the daily coverage
provided on our twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/sportslaw_asser">@Sportslaw_asser.</a> You
are invited to complete this survey via the comments section below, feel free
to add links to important cases, documents and articles we might have
overlooked.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Headlines</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><u>#Save(d)Hakeem</u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The plight of
Hakeem al-Araibi – the 25-year-old refugee footballer who was arrested last
November in Bangkok upon his arrival from Australia on the basis of a red
notice issued by Interpol in contravention of its own policies which afford
protection to refugees and asylum-seekers – continued throughout the month of
January. Bahrain – the country Hakeem al-Araibi fled in 2014 due to a
(well-founded) fear of persecution stemming from his previous experience when
he was imprisoned and tortured as part of the crackdown on pro-democracy
athletes who had protested against the royal family during the Arab spring –
maintained a firm stance, demanding that Hakeem be extradited to serve a prison
sentence over a conviction for vandalism charges, which was allegedly based on
coerced confessions and ignored evidence. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">While international
sports governing bodies were critised from the very beginning for not using
enough leverage with the governments of Bahrain and Thailand to ensure that
Hakeem’s human rights are protected, they have gradually added their voice to
the intense campaign for Hakeem’s release led by civil society groups. FIFA,
for example, has sent a <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-letter-to-the-thai-authorities-concerning-hakeem-al-araibi.pdf?cloudid=tkgiczg37mwix1mg5jnl">letter</a> directly to the Prime Minister of Thailand, urging
the Thai authorities ‘<i>to take the
necessary steps to ensure that Mr al-Araibi is allowed to return safely to
Australia at the earliest possible moment, in accordance with the relevant
international standards</i>’. Yet many activists have found this action
insufficient and called for sporting sanctions to be imposed on the national
football associations of Bahrain and Thailand. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">When it looked like
Hakeem will continue to be detained in Thailand at least until April this year,
the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/thailand-to-free-bahraini-footballer-hakeem-al-araibi">news</a> broke that the Thai authorities agreed to release
Hakeem due to the fact that for now the Bahraini government had given up on the
idea of bringing Hakeem ‘home’ – <a href="https://www.uniglobalunion.org/news/hakeem-saved-historic-moment-sport-and-human-rights-movement">a moment that
was praised as historic for the sport and human rights movement</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i><u>Russia avoids further sanctions from WADA despite
missing the deadline for handing over doping data from the Moscow laboratory</u></i>&nbsp;
</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">WADA has been back
in turmoil ever since the new year began as the Russian authorities failed to
provide it with access to crucial doping data from the former Moscow laboratory
within the required <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/01/rusada-missed-doping-data-deadline-wada-travis-tygart-craig-reedie">deadline
which expired on 31 December 2018</a>, insisting that the equipment WADA intended to use
for the data extraction was not certified under Russian law. The Russian
Anti-Doping Agency thus failed to meet one of the two conditions under which
its three-year suspension was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/20/wada-crisis-lifts-russia-suspension-anti-doping">controversially
lifted</a> in September 2018.
The missed deadline sparked outrage among many athletes and national
anti-doping organisations, who blamed WADA for not applying enough muscle
against the Russian authorities.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Following the
expiry of the respective deadline, it appeared that further sanctions could be
imposed on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, but such an option was on the table
only until WADA finally managed to access the Moscow laboratory and <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-successfully-retrieves-data-from-moscow-laboratory">retrieve the
doping data</a> on 17
January 2019. Shortly thereafter, WADA President Sir Craig Reedie hailed the
progress as a major breakthrough for clean sport and members of the WADA
Executive Committee agreed that <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-executive-committee-endorses-crc-recommendation-to-continue-applying">no further
sanctions</a> were needed
despite the missed deadline. However, doubts remain as to whether the data have
not been manipulated. Before WADA delivers on its promise and builds strong
cases against the athletes who doped – to be handled by international sports
federations – it first needs to do its homework and verify whether the
retrieved data are indeed genuine. &nbsp;</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i><u>British track cyclist Jessica Varnish not an employee
according to UK employment tribunal</u></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">On 16 January 2019,
an employment tribunal in Manchester rendered a <a href="https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/VARNISH-V-THE-BRITISH-CYCLING-FEDERATION-OTHER-ET.pdf">judgment</a> with wider implications for athletes and sports
governing bodies in the United Kingdom, ruling that the female track cyclist
Jessica Varnish was neither an employee nor a worker of the national governing
body British Cycling and the funding agency UK Sport. The 28-year-old multiple
medal winner from the world and European championships takes part in
professional sport as an independent contractor but sought to establish before
the tribunal that she was in fact an employee of the two organisations. This
would enable her to sue either organisation for unfair dismissal as she was
dropped from the British cycling squad for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de
Janeiro and her funding agreement was not renewed, allegedly in response to her
critical remarks about some of the previous coaching decisions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The tribunal
eventually dismissed her challenge, concluding that ‘<i>she was not personally performing work provided by the respondent –
rather she was personally performing a commitment to train in accordance with
the individual rider agreement in the hope of achieving success at
international competitions</i>’. Despite the outcome of the dispute, Jessica
Varnish has insisted that her legal challenge contributed to a positive change
in the structure, policies and personnel of British Cycling and UK Sport, while
both organisations have communicated they had already taken action to
strengthen the duty of care and welfare provided to athletes. &nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Sports Law Related Decisions</b></p><p align="justify"></p><ul><li>&nbsp;Employment Tribunal – <a href="https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/VARNISH-V-THE-BRITISH-CYCLING-FEDERATION-OTHER-ET.pdf">Reserved
judgment in the case involving Jess Varnish</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Official Documents and Press Releases</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>CAS – <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Bulletin_2018_2.pdf#page73">Bulletin
2018/02</a></li><li>CAS – <a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Code_2019__en_.pdf">Code of
sports-related arbitration (effective from 1 January 2019)</a></li><li>FIFA – <a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/fifa-statement-on-hakeem-al-araibi">Statement on
Hakeem al-Araibi</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/fifa-letter-to-the-thai-authorities-concerning-hakeem-al-araibi">Letter to the
Thai authorities concerning Hakeem al-Araibi</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2019/m=1/news=fifa-appeal-committee-partially-upholds-appeal-lodged-by-kalusha-bwalya.html">FIFA Appeal
Committee partially upholds appeal lodged by Kalusha Bwalya</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/fifa-unesco-and-the-world-food-programme-agree-innovative-partnership">FIFA, UNESCO
and the World Food Programme agree innovative partnership</a></li><li>FIFA – <a href="https://www.fifatms.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2019/01/fifa_tms_gtm_women_A4_online_f01.pdf">Global
Transfer Market Report 2018 - women</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifatms.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2019/01/fifa_tms_gtm_men_A4_online_f01.pdf">Global
Transfer Market Report 2018 - men</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifatms.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2018/12/Intermediaries-2018.pdf">Intermediaries
in International Transfers 2018</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/news/joint-public-statement-on-behalf-of-fifa-uefa-afc-the-premier-league-laliga-and-">Joint public
statement on behalf of FIFA, UEFA, AFC, the Premier League, LaLiga and
Bundesliga on beoutQ</a></li><li>FIFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.fifa.com/governance/news/y=2019/m=1/news=normalisation-committee-appointed-for-namibian-fa.html">Normalisation
committee appointed for Namibian FA</a></li><li>Human
Rights Watch –<b> </b><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/17/qatar-partial-reforms-risk-undermining-progress">Qatar:
Partial reforms risk undermining progress</a></li><li>IBSF –<b> </b><a href="https://www.ibsf.org/en/news/8-bobsleigh/20981-ibsf-statement#.XEAoJRkE9ws.twitter">IBSF
sanctions Russian bobsleigh athletes and official for anti-doping rule
violation with a period of ineligibility of two years</a></li><li>IOC – <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/new-year-s-message-2019">New year’s
message 2019</a></li><li>IOC – <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-disappointed-at-decision-of-swiss-federal-tribunal">IOC
disappointed at decision of Swiss Federal Tribunal</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sanctions-one-athlete-for-failing-anti-doping-tests-at-london-2012">IOC sanctions
one athlete for failing anti-doping tests at London 2012</a></li><li>IOC –<b> </b><a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/stockholm-are-and-milan-cortina-submit-innovative-games-plans-for-the-olympic-winter-games-2026">Stockholm-Are
and Milan-Cortina submit innovative Games plans for the Olympic Winter Games
2026</a></li><li>Tennis
Integrity Unit – <a href="http://www.tennisintegrityunit.com/annual-review/2018/">Annual Review
2018</a></li><li>Tennis
Integrity Unit –<b> </b><a href="http://www.tennisintegrityunit.com/media-releases/cristobal-saavedra-corvalan-suspended-and-fined-failing-co-operate-tiu-corruption-investigation">Cristobal
Saavedra-Corvalan suspended and fined for failing to cooperate with TIU
corruption investigation</a></li><li>UEFA – <a href="https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/OfficialDocument/uefaorg/Clublicensing/02/58/99/65/2589965_DOWNLOAD.pdf">Club
Licensing Benchmarking Report Financial Year 2017</a></li><li>UEFA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/protecting-the-game/club-licensing-and-financial-fair-play/news/newsid=2589785.html">UEFA report
details European football’s journey to profitability</a></li><li>WADA – <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/new-year-message-to-stakeholders-from-wada-president-and-director-general">New Year
message to stakeholders from WADA President and Director General</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/reminder-wada-is-soliciting-feedback-on-the-anti-doping-charter-of-athlete-rights">Reminder:
WADA is soliciting feedback on the Anti-Doping Charter of Athlete Rights</a></li><li>WADA – <a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-update-on-extraction-of-moscow-laboratory-data-and-rusada-compliance-status">Update on
extraction of Moscow Laboratory data and RUSADA compliance status</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/statement-from-the-wada-athlete-committee-on-russian-compliance-situation">Statement
from the WADA Athlete Committee on Russian compliance situation</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-expert-team-to-return-to-moscow">WADA expert
team to return to Moscow</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-successfully-retrieves-data-from-moscow-laboratory">WADA
successfully retrieves data from Moscow Laboratory</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-executive-committee-endorses-crc-recommendation-to-continue-applying">WADA
Executive Committee endorses CRC recommendation to continue applying conditions
of RUSADA compliance</a></li><li>WADA –<b> </b><a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2019-01/wada-compliance-review-committee-update">WADA
Compliance Review Committee update</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="justify"><b>&nbsp;</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>In the news</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Doping</i></p><p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Associated
Press <a href="https://apnews.com/8d30ba4d3ea64598a4d0968686dfc432?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&amp;utm_medium=AP_Sports&amp;utm_source=Twitter">Russian court
says bobsledder can keep Olympic titles</a></li><li>BBC Sport <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-sports/46843365">Alexandr
Zubkov to keep Olympic titles in Russia despite IOC ruling</a></li><li>Andy
Brown <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/wadas-intelligence-investigations-department-covering-20-of-cases/">WADA’s
Intelligence &amp; Investigations department covering 20% of cases</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/25/olympic-marathon-champion-jemima-sumgong-doping-ban-doubled-kenya-">Marathon
champion Jemima Sumgong has doping ban doubled to eight years</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/14/team-sky-british-cycling-richard-freeman-medical-tribunal-testosterone">Tribunal to
hear claims ex-Team Sky doctor Freeman ordered testosterone</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/01/rusada-missed-doping-data-deadline-wada-travis-tygart-craig-reedie">WADA accussed
of being ‘played’ after Russians miss doping data deadline</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/02/wada-athletes-pressure-new-ban-russia-doping">WADA athletes
body adds to pressure for new ban on Russia</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/07/wada-return-to-russia-doping-data-craig-reedie">WADA experts
set to return to Russia to investigate doping data after IT row</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/17/wada-retrieves-doping-data-moscow-doubts-linger">WADA
retrieves doping data from Moscow but doubts linger over veracity</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/22/russia-avoid-wada-sanctions-missing-data-deadline">Russia avoids
further WADA sanctions despite missing data deadline</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Football</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>David
Conn <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/17/europe-clubs-benefit-ffp-first-profit">Europe’s
top-tier football clubs reap benefit of FFP with first overall profit</a></li><li>David
Conn <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/15/manchester-city-refuse-comment-uefa-ffp-allegations">Manchester
City refuse to give UEFA any comment on FFP allegations</a></li><li>David
Conn <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/10/football-gambling-dire-consequences-young-men-bet-new-study">Revealed: The
‘dire consequences’ of football’s relationship with gambling</a></li><li>Helen Davidson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/18/hakeem-al-araibi-bahrain-says-refugee-footballers-life-is-not-in-danger">Hakeem
al-Araibi: Bahrain says refugee footballer’s life is not in danger</a></li><li>Helen Davidson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/26/call-for-fifas-salman-al-khalifa-to-step-down-if-hakeem-al-araibi-is-not-freed">Call for
FIFA’s Salman al-Khalifa to step down if Hakeem al-Araibi is not freed</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/24/fifa-urges-thailand-release-bahraini-footballer-hakeem-al-araibi">FIFA urges
Thailand to release Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/24/real-madrid-barcelona-overtake-manchester-united-football-top-earners-deloitte-money-league">Real Madrid
and Barcelona overtake Manchester United as top earning clubs</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle and Helen Davidson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/28/hakeem-al-araibi-bahrain-detention-activists-emergency">Campaigners
say case of Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi now an ‘emergency’</a></li><li>Tariq
Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/sports/fifa-uefa-infantino.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=6&amp;pgtype=collection">FIFA’s boss
wants to remake the game. Europe wants no part of it.</a></li><li>Tariq
Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/sports/qatar-saudi-arabia-asian-cup.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=8&amp;pgtype=collection">Politics
looms over empty seats as Saudi Arabia faces Qatar in Asian Cup</a></li><li>Tariq
Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/sports/soccer/qatar-uae-asian-cup.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=3&amp;pgtype=collection">U.A.E.
accuses Qatar of fielding ineligible players at Asian Cup</a></li><li>Tariq
Panja <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/sports/soccer/football-leaks-rui-pinto.html">When is a
hacker whistle-blower? In Football Leaks case, a Hungarian judge will decide</a></li><li>Tariq
Panja and Kevin Draper <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/sports/cristiano-ronaldo-lawsuit.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=1&amp;pgtype=collection">Cristiano
Ronaldo’s DNA sought by Las Vegas police in rape investigation</a></li><li>Tariq
Panja and Hiroko Tabuchi <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/world/europe/japan-olympics-corruption-tsunekazu-takeda.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Ftariq-panja&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=undefined&amp;region=stream&amp;module=stream_unit&amp;version=latest&amp;contentPlacement=10&amp;pgt">Japan’s
Olympic chief faces corruption charges in France</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Stine
Alvad <a href="https://playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2019/0550_fifa-fails-to-live-up-to-own-human-rights-standards-in-freehakeem-case-critics-say/">FIFA fails to
live up to own human rights standards in #SaveHakeen case, critics say</a></li><li>Philip
Blenkinsop <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-nike-tax/nikes-dutch-tax-status-investigated-by-eu-commission-idUSKCN1P415L">Nike’s Dutch
tax status investigated by EU regulators</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/16/jess-varnish-employment-tribunal-british-cycling-uk-sport">Jess Varnish
loses employment tribunal case against British Cycling and UK Sport</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/17/jess-varnish-exposed-culture-fear">Jess Varnish:
I lost, but my stance has exposed a culture of fear</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/04/lives-transformed-grassroots-sport-sir-keith-mills-sported">‘Lives have
been transformed’ – the entrepreneur who put £10m into grassroots sport</a></li><li>Sam
Jones <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/10/police-spain-break-up-tennis-match-fixing-ring-28-pros?CMP=share_btn_tw">Police in
Spain break up tennis match-fixing ring involving 28 pros</a></li><li>Braden
Keith <a href="https://swimswam.com/fina-relaxes-rules-wont-ban-athletes-for-competing-in-non-fina-meets/">FINA relaxes
rules, won’t ban athletes for competing in non-FINA events</a></li><li>Malay
Mail <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/sports/2019/01/30/cas-dismisses-karims-appeal-against-iaaf/1718084#.XFI9HzIq5w4.twitter">CAS dismisses
Karim’s appeal against IAAF</a></li><li>Liam
Morgan <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1074077/japanese-olympic-committee-president-indicted-on-corruption-charges-in-france">Japanese
Olympic Committee President indicted on corruption charges in France</a></li><li>Jonathan
Taylor <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/response-to-open-letter-from-sebastian-samuelsson/">Response to
open letter from Sebastian Samuelsson</a></li></ul><p></p><p align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Academic Materials</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>International Sports Law Journal</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Cem
Abanazir <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-018-0139-6">E-sport and
the EU: The View from the English Bridge Union</a></li><li>Alexander
Brown and Roger Baines <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-019-00142-x">The Potential
Exploitation of Non-English Speaking Players in UK Professional Football
Contracts</a></li><li>James
Brown <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-019-00141-y">Genetic
Doping: WADA We Do About the Future of ‘Cheating’ in Sport?</a> </li><li>John
Didulica <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-018-0138-7">Changing the
Game: The Legal Framework for the Laws of the Game, Management of Human
Performance Data and Related Safety Considerations in Women's Professional
Sport</a></li><li>Matteo Maciel and Adam Walton <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-018-0140-0">Can Player
Economic Value Rights Be Used as Collateral?</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Jan
Exner <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030108069">Sporting
Nationality in the Context of European Union</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Blog</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Law in Sport</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Katherine
Apps <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/can-you-temporarily-step-down-from-an-employment-role-a-view-on-craig-bellamy-s-position">Can you
‘temporarily step down’ from an employment role? A view on Craig Bellamy’s
position</a></li><li>Kevin
Carpenter <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/interview-with-kevin-carpenter-a-career-in-sports-law-and-sports-integrity-episode-72?category_id=112">Podcast on
career in sports law and sports integrity</a></li><li>Angela
Collins <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/gender-equality-in-football-how-much-does-fifa-value-the-women-s-game">Gender
equality in football – how much does FIFA ‘value’ the women’s game?</a></li><li>Zoe
Dudgeon and Elinor Boote <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/a-comprehensive-guide-for-sports-bodies-on-tackling-discrimination">A
comprehensive guide for sports bodies on tackling discrimination</a></li><li>Nick
Hawkins and Naomi Latham <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/top-tips-for-football-clubs-on-navigating-complex-employment-negotiations">Top tips for
football clubs on navigating complex employment negotiations</a></li><li>Marc
Peltier <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/french-law-brought-into-line-with-the-world-anti-doping-code">French law
brought into line with the World Anti-Doping Code</a></li><li>Angelo
Rigopoulos <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/a-guide-to-uefa-s-good-governance-reform?category_id=112#references">A guide to
UEFA’s good governance reform</a></li><li>Toni
Roca <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/articles/item/fifa-s-proposed-solidarity-mechanism-reforms-an-effective-solution-or-a-lost-opportunity">FIFA’s
proposed solidarity mechanism reforms – an effective solution or a lost
opportunity?</a></li><li>Brendan
Schwab <a href="https://soundcloud.com/lawinsport/brendan-schwab-world-players-association-on-the-hakeem-al-araibi-case">Podcast on
the Hakeem al-Araibi case</a>&nbsp;
</li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><i>Other</i></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>Jack
Anderson <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/alumni/mls-news/issue-20-november-2018/sport-scandals-of-2018">Sport
scandals of 2018</a></li><li>Nikki Dryden <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/17/why-hakeem-al-araibis-plight-is-a-test-of-the-olympic-movement-itself">Why Hakeem
al-Araibi’s plight is a test of the Olympic movement itself</a></li><li>Marina
Hyde <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/02/inconceivable-russia-yet-again-leave-sir-craig-reedie-looking-the-fool-wada-drugs-in-sport-athletics">Inconceivable!
Russia yet again leaves Sir Craig Reedie looking the fool</a></li><li>Marina
Hyde <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/jan/30/saudi-arabia-sportswashing-golf-european-tour-saudi-international-justin-rose">Saudi Arabia,
sportwashing and golf’s daring sortie into enemy coffers</a></li><li>Marina
Hyde <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/jan/09/wada-lynch-mob-dick-pound-craig-reedie">The anti-WADA
‘lynch mob’ is not one Vernon Kay and co would recognise</a></li><li>Sean
Ingle <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/jan/27/hakeem-al-araibi-bahrain-detention-thailand-extradition-order-fifa-ioc">Football must
go in hard on Bahrain over the Hakeem al-Araibi affair</a></li><li>Doug
MacQuarrie <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/another-point-of-view/">Another point
of view from Doug MacQuarrie, Chair of iNADO</a></li><li>Sportschau
<a href="https://www.sportschau.de/doping/The-Duped-Cheat-100.html">The duped
cheat</a></li><li>Minky
Worden <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/12/06/hakeem-al-araibis-case-true-test-fifas-new-human-rights-policy">Hakeem
al-Araibi’s case is a true test of FIFA’s new human rights policy</a></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><b>Upcoming Events</b></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>8 May –
<a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-fifa-and-human-rights-impacts-policies-responsibilities-deadline-30-january">FIFA and
Human Rights: Impacts, Policies and Responsibilities</a>, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands</li><li>22-23
May – <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/sports-law-events/conference/69-footy-pap2019">Football Law
2019: Player Transfers, Agents, Politics and the Business of Football</a>, London, UK</li><li>27-28
June – <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wl04evr7jwnc5c/2019_Conference_Call_for_papers.pdf?dl=0">14<sup>th</sup>
Sport&amp;EU Annual Conference</a>, Valleta, Malta</li><li>12-13
September – <a href="https://www.lawinsport.com/annual-conference">Understand
the Rules of the Game 2019: LawInSport Annual Conference</a>, London, UK</li><li>24-25
October – <a href="https://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-third-annual-international-sports-law-conference-of-the-international-sports-law-journal-24-and-25-october-2019-asser-institute">Third Annual
International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal</a>, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands</li></ul><p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/international-and-european-sports-law-monthly-report-january-2019-by-tomas-grell
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/international-and-european-sports-law-monthly-report-january-2019-by-tomas-grell#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=d1df4753-8755-45bf-8611-26250f787821Tue, 19 Feb 2019 21:02:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law CasesInternational Sports Law EventsInternational Sports Law MaterialInternational Sports Law PublicationsAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=d1df4753-8755-45bf-8611-26250f7878210http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=d1df4753-8755-45bf-8611-26250f787821http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/international-and-european-sports-law-monthly-report-january-2019-by-tomas-grell#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=d1df4753-8755-45bf-8611-26250f787821Call for papers - Third Annual International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal - 24 and 25 October 2019 - Asser Institute
<p>
</p><p align="justify">The Editors of the International Sports Law Journal
(ISLJ) invite you to submit abstracts for the third ISLJ Annual Conference on
International Sports Law, which will take place on 24 and 25 October 2019 at
the Asser Institute in The Hague. The ISLJ, published by Springer and Asser
Press, is the leading academic publication in the field of international sports
law. The conference is a unique occasion to discuss the main legal issues
affecting international sports with renowned academic experts and practitioners. <br></p><p align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">We are delighted to announce the following confirmed
keynote speakers: <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li><b>Beckie Scott</b> (Chair of
the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Athlete Committee, Olympic Champion, former
member of the WADA Executive Committee and the International
Olympic Committee&nbsp;(IOC)),</li><li><b>Ulrich Haas</b> (Professor of Law at Univerzität Zürich, CAS arbitrator),
and</li><li><b>Kimberly Morris</b> (Head of FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS) Integrity
and Compliance).</li></ul><p></p><p align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">We welcome abstracts from academics and practitioners
on any question related to international sports law. We also welcome panel
proposals (including a minimum of three presenters) on a specific issue. For
this year’s edition, we specifically invite submissions on the following themes:</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p><p align="justify"></p><ul><li>The role of athletes in the governance of international sports</li><li>The evolution of sports arbitration, including the Court of Arbitration
for Sport</li><li>&nbsp;The role and functioning of the FIFA transfer system, including the FIFA
TMS</li><li>&nbsp;The intersection between criminal law and international sports (in
particular issues of corruption, match-fixing, human trafficking, tax evasion)</li><li>Hooliganism</li><li>Protection of minor athletes</li><li>Civil and criminal liability relating to injuries in sports</li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Please send your abstract of 300 words and CV no later
than <b>30 April 2019</b> to <a href="mailto:a.duval@asser.nl">a.duval@asser.nl</a>. Selected speakers will be informed by 15 May.</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The selected participants will be expected to submit a
draft paper by 1 September 2019. All papers presented at the conference are
eligible (subjected to peer-review) for publication in a special issue of the
ISLJ.&nbsp; To be considered for inclusion in the conference issue of the
journal, the final draft must be submitted for review by 15 December
2019.&nbsp; Submissions after this date will be considered for publication in
later editions of the Journal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The Asser Institute will cover one night accommodation
for the speakers and will provide a limited amount of travel grants (max. 250€).
If you wish to be considered for a grant please indicate it in your
submission.&nbsp;</p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-third-annual-international-sports-law-conference-of-the-international-sports-law-journal-24-and-25-october-2019-asser-institute
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-third-annual-international-sports-law-conference-of-the-international-sports-law-journal-24-and-25-october-2019-asser-institute#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=02fb4319-dd7b-493e-9d28-2994bce424e4Wed, 13 Feb 2019 15:02:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law EventsAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=02fb4319-dd7b-493e-9d28-2994bce424e40http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=02fb4319-dd7b-493e-9d28-2994bce424e4http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/call-for-papers-third-annual-international-sports-law-conference-of-the-international-sports-law-journal-24-and-25-october-2019-asser-institute#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=02fb4319-dd7b-493e-9d28-2994bce424e4A Reflection on the Second Report of FIFA’s Human Rights Advisory Board - By Daniela Heerdt (Tilburg University)<p align="justify"><i><b>Editor's note</b>: </i><i>Daniela Heerdt is a PhD candidate at Tilburg
Law School in the Netherlands and works as Research Officer for the </i><a href="https://www.sporthumanrights.org/"><i>Centre for Sports and
Human Rights</i></a><i>. Her PhD research deals with the
establishment of responsibility and accountability for adverse human rights
impacts of mega-sporting events, with a focus on FIFA World Cups and Olympic
Games. She published an </i><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40318-018-0129-8"><i>article in the International Sports Law Journal</i></a><i> that discusses to what extent the revised bidding and hosting
regulations by FIFA, the IOC and UEFA strengthen access to remedy for
mega-sporting events-related human rights violations.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">On November
26<sup>th</sup>, the Human Rights Advisory Board<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a>
of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) published its <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvhhttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvh">second report</a>. This blog provides a summary and brief
evaluation of the report, by drawing a comparison to the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/91/92/38/fifahumanrightsenweb_neutral.pdf">previous report</a> issued by the Human Rights Advisory
Board (hereinafter: the Board) based on the content of the recommendations and
FIFA’s efforts to implement the Board’s recommendations. The third part of this
blog briefly reflects on the broader implications of some of the new
recommendations issued for FIFA’s internal policies. The conclusion provides
five more general points of observation on the report. </p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<h4 align="justify">Old and New
Recommendations</h4>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">In its
second report, the Board makes 30 ‘specific recommendations’ to FIFA, just
slightly less than the previous one. However, not all of these recommendations
are new to FIFA. A number of them have been released in the two update
statements the Board released since the publication of its first report, one in
<a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/AB%20Update%20Statement_May%202018_Final.pdf">May 2018</a> and one in <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/documents/AB%20Statement_Fourth%20meeting_Oct2018.pdf">October 2018</a>. Two more sets of recommendations were
communicated to FIFA in December 2017 and February 2018, which are as well
included in this new report, but which have not been reported publicly before. </p><p align="justify">Content-wise, most of the
recommendations still deal with the human rights risks associated with FIFA’s
upcoming and past events. The recommendations made with regard to the human
rights issues surrounding the 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia have been issued
in December 2017 and concern the general situation and human rights of
construction workers, human rights defenders and media representatives, mostly
recommending that FIFA should use its leverage to address these issues with the
government or other relevant stakeholders, such as the Local Organizing
Committee (LOC). Another December-recommendation concerned the sharing of
measures taken by FIFA to investigate the involvement of Russia football
players in the Russian doping scandal. Furthermore, the report includes the
Board’s recommendations <a>regarding the controversies surrounding </a><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/14/chechnya-host-world-cup-finalist-team">the choice of accommodation of the Egyptian national team</a><a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title="">[2]</a>, which had been addressed in a set of recommendations initially issued
in February 2018<a class="msocomanchor" id="_anchor_1" href="#_msocom_1" name="_msoanchor_1">[AD1]</a>&nbsp;. With regard to the human rights
requirements for hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the report repeats the
recommendation issued in May 2018, concerning FIFA’s task to take into account
the capacity of bidders to assess and manage human rights risks when deciding
for a host. On this issue, the report also introduces a new recommendation for
FIFA to reflect on the inclusion of human rights into the bidding requirements.
Furthermore, the report also includes ‘interim recommendations’ in relation to
the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, and disclosed that a more detailed set of
recommendations can be expected shortly.<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title="">[3]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">While these
issues were already present in the first report, four new issues have been
added in this second report by the Board: </p>
<p align="justify"></p><ul><li>player’s rights, </li><li>child safeguarding, </li><li>the ban on woman attending sport
matches in Iran, </li><li>and FIFA’s approach to engagement
and communication on human rights.<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title="">[4]</a>
</li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">With regard
to player’s rights, the Board’s recommendations focus on access to remedy and FIFA’s
evaluation of existing football arbitration mechanisms from a human rights
perspective, the rules of the employment market for players and FIFA’s review
of these rules, and on FIFA’s regulations on player’s rights which need to take
the specific situation of children into account. Concerning child safeguarding,
the Board recommends that FIFA’s safeguarding working group should conduct a
comprehensive stakeholder consultation to identify the responsibilities of
member associations concerning child players. Regarding the issue of
discrimination against women in Iran, the Board recommends for FIFA to use its
leverage on the Iranian Association and to issue sanctions if nothing is
changing. Finally, on FIFA’s approach to engagement and communication on human
rights issues, the Board recommends that FIFA establishes a systematic annual
dialogue with key stakeholders, in addition to individual and event-specific
stakeholder engagement and that it adopts a transparent approach on negative
impacts connected to FIFA’s activities. Furthermore, the Board calls on FIFA to
communicate this approach and share relevant information with confederations
and member associations.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">What also changed in the second report is that
the Board does not issue requests to FIFA anymore. All measures proposed are
formulated as recommendations. However, it is questionable to what extent the
requests entailed in the first report really made a difference, since the
majority of these requests were merely inquiries for more information or
clarifications on certain issues.<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">[5]</a>
Such requests about additional information or more transparency on certain
issues are now included in the recommendations, such as in recommendation R42,
asking FIFA to “be as transparent as possible” and to “proactively publish the
steps it has taken”.<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title="">[6]</a>&nbsp; <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p><h4 align="justify">The New Tracking System</h4>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The second
report of FIFA’s Human Rights Advisory Board is not only longer in terms of
page numbers&nbsp; but it also provides more
detailed insights into human rights-related efforts FIFA undertook in the past
year and continues to undertake, based on the recommendations it received. While
in the first report, ‘part B’ consisted of a general overview of FIFA’s human
rights efforts up to that point in time, ‘part B’ in the new report lists
concrete measures taken by FIFA in reaction to the recommendations issued by
the Board in its first report and other recommendations statements made in the
past year. To assess these measures, the second report introduces a tracking
system, which ranks the status of FIFA’s implementation of the Board’s
recommendations from 1 to 4, moving from no implementation <i>(1)</i>, to ongoing implementation <i>(2)</i>,
to advanced implementation <i>(3)</i>, and
to full or “closed out” implementation <i>(4)</i>.<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title="">[7]</a>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">There is only one recommendation for which implementation
has not yet started <i>(category 1) </i>according
to the Board. This concerns the promotion of a policy with host countries of
direct employment of construction workers to prevent the strong reliance on
subcontractors, which involves greater risks for workers and migrant workers in
particular.<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title="">[8]</a> Ongoing
implementation <i>(category 2)</i> has been
observed in relation to the embedding of human rights throughout the FIFA
organisation, including relevant committees and key staff, as well as its
member associations, the testing of the method of risk identification with
informed stakeholders to confirm or challenge findings, and the joint
inspections together with LOCs. Furthermore, the Board assessed that
implementation is ongoing for three other recommendations: first, FIFA’s
considerations on how it can make the most efficient use of its leverage when
it comes to the issue of security arrangements linked to hosting a FIFA event;
secondly, the publishing of information on the design, operation, and the
results of the monitoring of construction sites; and thirdly, making prompt and
factual statements to show awareness and knowledge about critical human rights
issues when they arise. The Board found that FIFA made considerable advancement
<i>(category 3)</i> in developing a system
for risk identification, &nbsp;such as
monitoring systems or the detailed human rights salience analysis that is part
of the Sustainability Strategy and policy of the 2022 World Cup, as well as in
identifying risks to fundamental civil and political rights and communicating
its expectation to respect these rights with host governments.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">The adoption of a human rights policy has been
assessed as fully implemented <i>(category
4)</i>. The same evaluation has been made in relation to the recommendations
for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments, as well as for the bidding
processes and the 2026 FIFA World Cup. However, even though the implementation
efforts concerning these issues have been evaluated under the same category, taking
a closer look reveals that the actual status of implementation is not the same.
This is because category 4 combines two criteria, which in fact reflect very
different results. ‘Full implementation’ does not necessarily reflect the same
situation as ‘closed out implementation’. In other words, a reason for an
implementation to end (‘close out’) is not necessarily linked to the fact that the
recommended measure has been implemented in its entirety. In fact, full
implementation of a certain measure can produce a completely different scenario
than abandoning a certain recommendation or measure. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">This can be illustrated by taking a closer look
at the implementation of measures recommended to FIFA concerning the handling
of human rights issues related to the 2018 World Cup. Most of them have been
assessed as fully implemented or closed out, and so have the measures taken in
relation to the 2022 World Cup. In reality, however, the 2018 World Cup lies in
the past and the majority of measures taken in that context were discontinued
before they could fully be implemented. For example, the recommendation on
offering the Egyptian team an alternative location, including the financial
support needed, has been evaluated as ‘closed out’, even though the Egyptian
team in the end decided to stick with Grozny. The same can be said about the
recommendation that FIFA should raise with the LOC that timely compensation is
provided in case a worker on the World Cup construction sites got injured. Even
though FIFA states that they did not have access to any financial records that
would allow a verification of cash flows, the recommendation has been evaluated
as “implemented/closed out”.<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title="">[9]</a>
Due to this combination of two criteria under category 4, simply taking a look
at the tabular overview provided at the end of the report<a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title="">[10]</a>
can create a distorted picture of the actual implementation status of the
Board’s recommendations. Instead, a more careful look at FIFA’s actual efforts
on certain issues is necessary to fully understand whether FIFA was indeed
successful in implementing a certain recommendation, or whether it just dropped
the implementation, for instance because it was linked to a certain event that is
over now.&nbsp; <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<h4 align="justify">The Implications for
FIFA’s Internal Policies</h4>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Some of the recommendations included in the
report relate to how FIFA embeds its human rights commitments internally and
within its member associations. For instance, according to the Board FIFA
should discuss with the Board the reasons for the decision of the Ethics
Committee to not publish a detailed explanation of how it reached a decision in
a case, and that it should review its operations in that regard.<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title="">[11]</a>
In addition, it recommends FIFA to be explicit with its member associations on
what it expects and in what timeframe it expects them to align with FIFA’s
human rights responsibilities. The Board also implies that anticipated
sanctions should be included in FIFA Statutes, the Disciplinary Code and the
Ethics Code.<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title="">[12]</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Furthermore, the
update statement by FIFA in this second report reveals that a number of
measures were taken in relation to embedding human rights in its organization,
based on previous recommendations made by the Board.&nbsp; For instance, FIFA Council and Committee
members have to follow an e-learning course, which includes a human rights
module, and a human rights working group has been established within FIFA’s
Governance Committee. However, implementation on those matters is ongoing and it
becomes clear that this so far has not been the focus of FIFA’s human
rights-related efforts and more could be done in that regard.<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title="">[13]</a>
The context and overview FIFA provides on embedding the respect for human
rights is rather vague and the measures taken so far do not reach the entire
FIFA organization.<a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title="">[14]</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><br></p>
<h4 align="justify">Conclusion</h4>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="justify">A number of
general observations can be made based on this summary and comparison. First, most
recommendations and action taken by FIFA seem to concentrate on FIFA’s
commitment to identify and address human rights risks, which actually was already
the case in the first report. Secondly, while FIFA’s events still seem to be a
priority, the Board focused also on new issues. Yet, perhaps not enough
attention is dedicated to changing FIFA’s international structures and culture
into a well-established acceptance and reflection of FIFA’s human rights responsibilities.
Furthermore, the report provides valuable and detailed insight into the progress
made and how it is made, for instance in relation to FIFA’s leverage over
Qatar’s Supreme Committee and the Qatari government to change certain
regulations, the human rights defender cases in which FIFA intervened, or the
external partners FIFA worked with to address certain human rights risks.<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title="">[15]</a>
Finally, it is a comprehensive report, reflecting the Board’s understanding
towards FIFA’s burden of having to address issues of “the past, present and
future all at once”, and the fact that “FIFA has to deal with the legacy of
decisions taken and contracts signed before the organisation recognized its
human rights responsibilities”.<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title="">[16]</a>
This also shows that FIFA takes the Board seriously and in many ways follows
the Board’s recommendations.</p><p align="justify">
In general, the fact that FIFA has an active
Human Rights Advisory Board in place for more than a year now and renewed its
mandate until the end of 2020 should be applauded.<a href="#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title="">[17]</a>
Just this month, the <a href="https://www.olympic.org/news/ioc-sets-up-advisory-committee-on-human-rights-chaired-by-hrh-prince-zeid-ra-ad-al-hussein">International Olympic Committee
announced</a>
that it is also setting up a Human Rights Advisory Committee, which is supposed
to be fully operational by the 2024 Olympic Games, unfortunately not in time for
the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
</p><p><br clear="all">
</p><hr width="33%" size="1" align="left">
<p id="ftn1">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">[1]</a> The members of
the board are listed in the annex of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/91/92/38/fifahumanrightsenweb_neutral.pdf">first report</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn2">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">[2]</a> Egypt’s national team chose Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, as its
training camp during the World Cup 2018. FIFA authorized this choice, despite
the fact that the region’s human rights record is dominated by cases of
extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances and the Head of
the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, is known for his repression of journalists,
critics, minority groups, and human rights defenders. &nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn3">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title="">[3]</a> See p.19 of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvhhttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvh">second report</a></p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn4">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title="">[4]</a> Ibid., p 20</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn5">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title="">[5]</a> See p. 5, 7, or
11 of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/footballgovernance/02/91/92/38/fifahumanrightsenweb_neutral.pdf">first report</a></p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn6">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title="">[6]</a> See p. 15 of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvhhttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvh">second report</a></p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn7">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title="">[7]</a> See p. 5 of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvhhttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvh">second report</a></p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn8">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title="">[8]</a> See p. 60 of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvhhttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvh">second report</a></p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn9">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title="">[9]</a> See p. 48 of the <a href="https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvhhttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/fifa-second-human-rights-advisory-board-report.pdf?cloudid=hwl34aljrosubxevkwvh">second report</a></p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn10">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title="">[10]</a> Ibid. p. 80 ff.</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn11">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title="">[11]</a> Ibid. p. 27</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn12">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title="">[12]</a> Ibid. p. 25</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn13">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title="">[13]</a> Ibid. p. 34 f.</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn14">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title="">[14]</a> Ibid. p. 33 &amp;
35</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn15">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title="">[15]</a> Ibid. pp. 17-18,
67, &amp; 69</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn16">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title="">[16]</a> Ibid. p. 28</p>
<p></p>
<p id="ftn17">
</p><p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" title="">[17]</a> Ibid. p. 79</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>
</p><hr class="msocomoff" width="33%" size="1" align="left">
<p>
</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/a-reflection-on-the-second-report-of-fifa-s-human-rights-advisory-board
http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/a-reflection-on-the-second-report-of-fifa-s-human-rights-advisory-board#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=05d6210e-79a3-4052-88d1-1fdcbfd9cd0aWed, 19 Dec 2018 13:12:00 +0200BlogInternational Sports Law CommentariesInternational Sports Law MaterialAntoine Duvalhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/pingback.axdhttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post.aspx?id=05d6210e-79a3-4052-88d1-1fdcbfd9cd0a0http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/trackback.axd?id=05d6210e-79a3-4052-88d1-1fdcbfd9cd0ahttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/a-reflection-on-the-second-report-of-fifa-s-human-rights-advisory-board#commenthttp://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/syndication.axd?post=05d6210e-79a3-4052-88d1-1fdcbfd9cd0a